Talcott,
Horace P.
Horace P. Talcott, son of Asa and Caroline
(Newcomb) Talcott, was born in Madison, Lake
County, Ohio, on April 10, 1835. He married
Elizabeth Kemp on July 5, 1857.
While working as a 27-year-old farmer in Clayton
County, he was enrolled on August 11, 1862, at
Strawberry Point in a company then being raised
primarily in Clayton County by local dentist
Charles P. Heath. They were mustered in as
Company B on August 18, 1862, with Horace
described as being 5' 8¼” tall with blue
eyes, auburn hair, and a sandy complexion. When
all ten companies were of sufficient strength,
they were mustered into service on September 9,
1862, at Dubuque, as the 21st Regiment of Iowa
Volunteer Infantry.
A week later they crowded on board the steamer Henry
Clay and two barges lashed to its side and
left for the South. They went first to St. Louis
where they were inspected and spent one night
before traveling by train to the railhead at
Rolla where they arrived on September 22, 1862.
On October 18th they started the first of many
long marches they would take before their
military careers came to an end. They walked to
Salem, Houston, Hartville and, after a wagon
train was attacked in November, back to Houston.
They were still stationed there when ordered to
the support of Springfield where an attack by
Confederates moving north from Arkansas was
expected. Horace was one of twenty-five from
Company B who volunteered to join the expedition,
but they never made it to Springfield. On the
way, at Hartville on January 11, 1863, they
engaged the Confederates in a day-long battle
with their regiment having three killed in
action, one fatally wounded who would die on the
26th, and at least thirteen non-fatally wounded.
Near the end of the month they walked south to
West Plains where they arrived on January 30,
1863. Most thought they would continue into
Arkansas but, instead, they were ordered to the
Mississippi. They moved northeast through
Thomasville to Ironton and Iron Mountain and
reached the river at the old French town of Ste.
Genevieve on March 11th.
The men enjoyed their stay in Ste. Genevieve but,
on April 1, 1863, they boarded the Ocean Wave
and again headed down the Mississippi, past
Memphis, to Milliken’s Bend where General
Grant was organizing a massive army intent on
capturing the city of Vicksburg. Vicksburg was
viewed as the “key” to opening the
Mississippi River and the 21st Iowa would play a
prominent part in the upcoming campaign. After
moving through swamps and bayous west of the
river, the army crossed the river on April 30,
1863 to the small landing at Bruinsburg. As the
point regiment for the entire Union army, they
led the movement inland and, guided along dirt
roads by a former slave, they drew first fire
about midnight. On May 1, 1863, Horace was with
the regiment as it participated in the Battle of
Port Gibson, a town that General Grant reputedly
said was too beautiful to burn. Regimental
casualties were three fatally wounded and
fourteen non-fatally wounded.
Horace was also present on May 16, 1863, at the
Battle of Champion’s Hill when the regiment
was held in reserve by their commanding general,
John A. McClernand, and only two companies were
permitted to engage in light skirmishing after
the battle. William Crooke, Captain of Company B,
felt McClernand had been: "spellbound by a
show of opposition and the throwing of a few
shells from the high ridge in his front caused
three of his own divisions and one of Sherman's
to stand motionless while another division of his
own corps was being slaughtered by wholesale
almost if not quite within musket range, but hid
from them by dense woods. Those who stood there
that day will surely never forget the bands of
humiliation and shame which bound them to the
spot, while listening to the awful crashes of
musketry and thunders of cannon close by."
Having not participated in the battle on the
16th, the 21st Iowa and others in its brigade,
were ordered to the front on the 17th. Nearing
the railroad bridge over the Big Black River they
encountered entrenched Confederates hoping to
keep the bridge open long enough for all their
troops to cross. Never one to hesitate, General
“Big Mike” Lawler agreed to a bayonet
charge. Colonel Merrill shouted to the 21st -
"By the left flank, Charge!" Colonel
Kinsman ordered the 23d "Forward!" and
"his noble regiment sprang forward"
over the plain and toward the bayou and the
waiting enemy. Some fired their guns; others just
ran as fast as they could.
The assault was short, only three minutes, and
the Confederates were routed, but the
regiment’s casualties were high. Horace
Talcott was uninjured in the assault, but seven
of his comrades were killed, eighteen were
fatally wounded, and thirty-eight were
non-fatally wounded. Among them was Colonel
Merrill who “fell severely wounded”
early in the charge when hit by a ball that
passed from right to left through both thighs.
The Thompson brothers joined two others “who
carried off our beloved Colonel. We laid him
beside that noble Christian soldier, Adjutant
Howard, who was mortally wounded, fearing that
his fate would be the same.” Many of the
wounded would stay with the regiment while others
would be transported to general hospitals in the
north or, like Merrill, to their homes where they
could rest and recuperate. Some would be
discharged, but others would recover sufficiently
to rejoin the regiment later.
Men still able for duty were allowed to rest,
bury the dead and treat the wounded, but were
soon in position on the line at the rear of
Vicksburg. An assault on the 19th, before they
arrived, had failed, but General Grant ordered
another assault for the 22nd. With 985 men,
officers and enlisted, on the muster rolls when
the regiment was mustered-in, they were down to
820 on the morning of the 22d, but many were
unable to participate. The assault was
unsuccessful and the regiment suffered its
heaviest casualties of the war: twenty-three
killed in action, twelve fatally wounded and at
least forty-eight with non-fatal wounds. Horace
Talcott had participated in the assault and would
remain present during the siege that ended with
the city’s surrender. He then joined an
immediate pursuit of Confederate General Joe
Johnston and a siege of the capital at Jackson.
Horace maintained his health well during the
regiment’s ensuing service in southwest
Louisiana, the Gulf coast of Texas, excursions
into Arkansas, and the campaign that resulted in
the occupation of Mobile, Alabama in the spring
of 1865. Returning from Alabama, they arrived in
New Orleans on May 28, 1865 and, the same day,
Horace was admitted to the city’s Marine
Hospital. With the war nearing an end, there was
no need for him to return to the regiment and he
was mustered out at the hospital on June 5, 1865.
Thirty-seven early enlistees were mustered out on
the 10th, most recruits who had enlisted after
the initial organization of the regiment were
transferred on July 12th so they could finish
their commitments, and the remained were mustered
out on July 15th at Baton Rouge.
Online sources indicate that Horace and Elizabeth
had three children, all born after the war: Fred
Arthur Talcott on August 13, 1867, and twins
“Mertie” and Bert Wallace
“Bertie” Talcott in July 1870.
Elizabeth died in 1909 and was buried in the
Strawberry Point Cemetery. The following year,
Horace died on June 22d, and was buried in the
same cemetery. Their son, Fred, married Harriett
Alice Manchester on June 30, 1892. Less than a
month after their fifty-fifth wedding
anniversary, Fred died on July 11, 1947, and
Harriett died on July 9, 1949. They’re
buried in Strawberry Point Cemetery.
~*~*~
Tharp, Jacob M.
Jacob M. Tharp was born in Gallipolis, Ohio, in
1820, moved to Illinois and, in the fall of 1857,
to Buena Vista Township, Clayton County, where he
worked as a farmer, laborer and “wood
chopper.”
On August 12, 1862, the Civil War was in its
second year when he was enrolled in the Union
Army by McGregor Postmaster Willard Benton.
Infantry regiments had ten companies with each
company led by a Captain, 1st and 2nd
Lieutenants, five ranks of Sergeant, and eight
ranks of Corporal. On August 22, 1862, at
Dubuque’s Camp Franklin, Company G was
mustered into service with Jacob as 1st Corporal
and Willard as Captain. The Company Muster-in
Roll described Jacob as being forty-two years
old, 5 feet 10¼ inches tall with blue eyes,
black hair and a dark complexion. With nine other
companies, they were mustered in as Iowa’s
21st regiment of volunteer infantry on September
9, 1862.
After another week of mostly ineffective
training, they marched through town on a rainy
September 16th, crowded on board the sidewheel
steamer Henry Clay and two barges tied
alongside, and left for war. Their initial
destination was St. Louis, but the trip took
longer than normal. On the 17th, about noon, they
were put ashore at Rock Island while the federal
government decided what regiments should be sent
to Minnesota where there was fighting between the
Dakota and local settlers. When the government
learned the regiment had already started south,
it was allowed to continue and, with flags at
half-mast in recognition of the death of Thompson
Spottswood who had contracted measles while at
Camp Franklin, resumed its journey about 2:00
p.m. on the 18th. On the 19th, Company F’s
Walter McNally said they got under way
“moved down to Montrose a Towne at the head
of the lower rappid we heare had to go a shore
againe at about none on the 19th heare we went
abord the cares and went by raleroad to
Kearkuk.” At Keokuk they boarded the Hawkeye
State, continued downstream and on September
20th finally reached St. Louis.
After one night at the city’s Camp Benton,
they boarded cars of the Southwest Branch of the
Pacific Railroad and, huddled under blankets,
were taken to the railroad’s western
terminus at Rolla, a town of about 600 residents.
From their first camp, said Cyrus Henderson,
“wee have to carey our water from one to
fore miles and it is bad then it tastes as bad as
them pond up thare does.” Officers were
aware of the problem with water that
"oppressed the senses like the breath of
sewers" and, on the morning of the 28th, the
camp was moved about five miles southwest of town
where there was good spring water.
On October 17th, pursuant to orders from Fitz
Henry Warren, reveille was about midnight and, at
2:00 a.m. on October 18th, those able to travel
started a march south to Salem. Muster rolls
prepared every two months reflected the presence
or absence of the soldier on the last day of the
bimonthly period together with any interim
absences, special duties, furloughs and other
events. On the October 31st muster roll taken at
Salem, Jacob was marked “present” but
hospitalized.
By November 2d, due to deaths, transfers,
discharges and three desertions, regimental
strength had dropped to 970 from an original 985
when they started a march to Houston. Many on the
rolls were too sick to travel, but Jacob
continued south with his regiment and, on the
December 31st muster roll at Houston, was again
marked “present” but hospitalized.
On January 4th, Captain Benton signed a
“Certificate of Disability for
Discharge” saying that Jacob “has been
unfit for duty 61 days. The said Jacob M. Tharp
was taken sick while doing camp duty in camp near
Rolla Mo. Oct 20th 1862 and has been unable to
perform the duties of a soldier since that time
and in my opinion never will be if retained in
the service.” A surgeon said Jacob had
chronic nephritis and lumbago and was “not
able to assume erect position either at rest or
in walking.” On the 24th, Brigadier General
Fitz Henry Warren signed the order of discharge.
Jacob was one of nine discharged that day and one
of forty-two since the regiment was mustered in
four and one-half months earlier.
On March 16, 1875, he filed an application for an
invalid pension. Supporting affidavits were
signed by former comrades William Flowers from
Buena Vista Township, Llewelyn Walker of
Millville and McGregor’s Willard Benton, but
evidence was conflicting. Benton, in the
contemporaneous “Certificate for Disability
for Discharge,” had said Jacob became ill
while doing “camp duty” at Rolla in
October, 1862, and was unable to do any duty
after that. When applying for a pension, Jacob
said he didn’t become ill until January,
1863, while performing duty and after swimming a
stream three times when placing pickets at
Houston. Benton then, contrary to the certificate
he had signed and on which the discharge was
based, said, like Jacob, that the illness
occurred in Houston in January.
Regardless of when (October or January), where
(Rolla or Houston) and how (doing camp duty or
swimming a stream) he had become incapacitated
and regardless of whether he had been unable to
perform duty since October or was performing duty
in January, the Department of the Interior’s
Bureau of Pensions finally agreed he was entitled
to a pension of $4.00 monthly for a disability
caused by lumbago and chronic nephritis while in
the military.
Like most pensioners, Jacob then applied for
increases. During the next several years Jacob
applied no fewer than nine times for an increase,
utilized the services of at least seven different
attorneys, signed two more affidavits, secured
another sixteen affidavits from people who knew
him, and had medical exams in McGregor (four
times), Dubuque (six times) and Elkader (once) -
all to no avail. Still receiving $4.00 monthly,
Jacob died on April 11, 1894, and was buried in
Goshen Cemetery, Millville.
Jacob had been married two, possibly three and
maybe four times. Pension records and information
from a descendant, indicate he first married
Catherine Stalnaker (although the spelling of her
surname varies) and had two children, Jacob Jr.
and Benjamin. Twice-married Fannie Holmes, widow
of Benjamin Williams and Peter Holmes (possibly
not in that order), said she married Jacob on
March 23, 1876. Sarah M. Bliss, another widow,
said she married Jacob on November 24, 1893, less
than five months before his death - and she had a
certificate of marriage to “prove” it -
or so it appeared. The fourth wife, if any, has
not been identified. Fannie filed a widow’s
claim, a special master conducted an
investigation, and the government agreed that she
was Jacob’s legal widow. Fannie was granted
a monthly pension of $8.00.
~*~*~
Thurber, Avery R.
Co D. - Avery's information is included in the
biography of his brother Justin.
~*~*~
Thurber, Justin Wells
Frederick G. and Zilpha (Farmer) Thurber, both
from Vermont, where living in Ashtabula County,
Ohio, when their five children were born. Justin,
the oldest, was born on May 19, 1840 and was
followed by Avery, Emma, Ezra and Rosanna. In the
1850's, the family moved to Clayton County, Iowa,
where Frederick worked as a farmer and helped
organize the local Methodist-Episcopal Church.
The state weathered the financial panic of 1857
and was prospering when Abraham Lincoln was
elected President in 1860, but Southern states
soon fulfilled their threat to secede and, on
April 12, 1861, Confederate guns fired on Fort
Sumter.
It was thought by many that the rebellion would
not last long. “There are men enough in
Pennsylvania alone to subdue South Carolina
without the aid of Iowa volunteers,” said
the Clayton County Journal. A
confederacy of Southern states was formed, war
followed and on July 9, 1862, Governor Kirkwood
received a telegram asking him to raise five
regiments in addition to those already in the
field. In answer to this call,
twenty-two-year-old Justin and nineteen-year-old
Avery enlisted at Volga on August 12th in what
would be Company D of the state’s 21st
regiment of volunteer infantry. By then, Justin
had married Celestia Truman while Avery was
unmarried.
At Dubuque’s Camp Franklin, the company was
mustered in on the 22nd and the regiment on
September 9th. They boarded the Henry Clay
and two barges tied alongside and started
downstream on the 16th, encountered low water at
Montrose, debarked, traveled by rail to Keokuk,
boarded the Hawkeye State, spent one
night at Benton Barracks in St. Louis and then
traveled by rail to Rolla, Missouri, where they
arrived on September 22nd. For more than six
months the regiment remained in Missouri, but the
health of its members suffered during the harsh
winter. Some died and others were
“discharged for disability.” At Salem
on October 31st, when the first bimonthly muster
roll was taken, both brothers were present, but
Justin was “sick in quarters.” On
November 2nd, he stayed in Salem when the
regiment left for Houston. Another roll was taken
on November 30th at Houston and this time both
brothers were “sick in quarters.” On
January 26, 1863, the regiment started a march to
West Plains while Avery, Justin and many others
were left in Houston, hoping to regain their
health.
They eventually rejoined the regiment but on
February 26th Justin was admitted to a regimental
hospital in Ironton complaining of diarrhea, a
common ailment that caused the death of at least
sixty-four members of the regiment. On the 27th,
at Iron Mountain, Avery died with his death
attributed to “congestive chills.” Two
days later he was buried and one of his comrades
said he was “one of an escort this forenoon
to escort a dead soldier to his last resting
place and fier three volleys over his grave as
the last honor to his remains.”
Justin was well enough to continue with the
regiment when it moved to Ste. Genevieve and then
by transport to Milliken’s Bend where
General Grant was organizing a large army to
capture Vicksburg. In a corps led by John
McClernand they walked south, paralleling the
river, crossing several large plantations and
wading through swamps but, unable to continue,
Justin was left in a regimental hospital at Judge
Perkins’ Somerset Plantation. After the May
1st Battle of Port Gibson, many of the sick and
wounded were cared for in Grand Gulf and
that’s were Justin was when he wrote a
notice that was published in the Clayton
County Journal:
“Notice is hereby given
that whereas my wife, Celestia A. Thurber has
behaved in an improper manner and refused to
recognize her lawful name while I have been
absent in the army, I will not pay any debts
contracted by her on my account and I warn
all persons against harboring the said
Celestia A. Thurber. J. W. THURBER. May 30th,
1863.”
During the next several months,
Justin was hospitalized at Milliken’s Bend
with chronic diarrhea, on board the Charles
W. McDougall with intermittent fever and in
a general hospital in St. Louis. By October 13,
1863, he had joined the regiment along Vermillion
Bayou in Louisiana and he continued
“present” on muster rolls on December
31st (Matagorda Bay, Texas), February 29th
(Indianola, Texas), April 30th (Matagorda Bay,
Texas), June 30th (Terrebonne Station, Louisiana)
and August 31st (Morganza, Louisiana) before
serving two month as a hospital cook. On November
21, 1864, relieved from his cooking duties,
Justin returned to regular duty and the next day
was with his comrades when they boarded the John
H. Dickey on Arkansas’ White River and
headed for Memphis where they arrived on the 28th
and made camp. A month later they boarded the Baltic,
went downstream, debarked and camped at
Kennerville on January 5, 1865. Still there on
the 30th, George Brownell said he and Justin
joined Salmon Bush and Thomas Larkin and the four
men “took the Morning train down to New
Orleans had a pleasant time went to the St
Charles Theater in the eavning.” On February
5th they boarded the George Peabody and on the
7th made camp near Fort Gaines on Dauphin Island,
Alabama. Two days later Justin, Billy Fobes and
James Ferman were sent to the fort’s
hospital where Justin was admitted and treated
for an irritating eye inflammation. Still
suffering from his eye problem, Justin was sent
back to New Orleans for treatment in the
city’s Marine Hospital and from there to the
Grant General Hospital on Willet’s Point in
New York Harbor. Finally, with the war nearing an
end, Justin returned to Iowa where he was
discharged on May 20, 1865.
Within months of his discharge, Justin had
divorced Celestia and, in Prairie due Chien,
married Florilla Tremain. They had four children:
Wilber Avery (born August 29, 1866), Minnie
Eugenia (born November 7, 1869), Jay Sheridan
(born October 7, 1874) and Maggie Ann (born
October 1, 1877).
Justin worked as a farmer in Clayton County until
the fall of 1871 when the family moved to
Lincoln, Kansas. Still there in 1874 he applied
for an invalid pension based on the eye
inflammation incurred on Dolphin Island. A doctor
in Lincoln signed a supportive affidavit
indicating that “manual labor of any kind
aggravates the condition and he cannot labor in
the dust or wind but a small portion of the
time.” Justin applied again in 1880, this
time claiming he was suffering from chronic
diarrhea and a lame back incurred during bad
weather in Missouri. A doctor noted that Justin
“has rings in ears & says that without
them eyes are sore all the time,” but the
doctor found no evidence of chronic diarrhea or
back problems.
By 1882 Justin was back in Iowa and living near
Mederville. To support his still pending claim,
he secured affidavits from three of his comrades-
Harvey King, Johann Hopp and Gilbert Cooley - and
many others who knew him before and after his
service, but it was not until 1885, almost five
years after he applied, that Justin was finally
approved for $2.00 monthly from the date of his
charge to March 23, 1881 “the disability
having ceased.” Like many others, he
immediately applied for an increase in the amount
of his pension. More affidavits were submitted,
more doctors conducted examinations and sometimes
increases were granted, other times not. While
Justin and Florilla kept busy with their farm
they visited friends in nearby Elkader,
entertained relatives from Oklahoma and
grandchildren from Chicago, and on December 31,
1906, “entertained twelve at an oyster
dinner.” Justin was receiving $12.00
monthly, payable quarterly, when he died on
December 6, 1908, while visiting his daughter,
Minnie, in Sylvan, Minnesota.
Later that month, Florilla applied for a
widow’s pension. To prove her marriage, she
submitted a certified copy of a marriage record
showing they had married on August 13, 1865.
Justin had previously advised the government of
his marriage to Celestia and said they had
divorced. To prove the divorce, Florialla
submitted divorce record showing the uncontested
divorce was in September 1865, one month after
her marriage. In explanation, she said Justin had
told her he was divorced when they married and
“I think he was misled by his attorney and
supposed the divorce had been granted.”
Despite her apparently not having had a legal
marriage, her application was approved at $12.00
monthly, an amount she received until her death
on January 12, 1944.
Justin, Florilla and Justin’s parents are
all buried in Mederville Cemetery, Cox Creek twp.
~*~*~
Treadwell, Abram 'Abe'
The son of Tyron Treadwell and Mary (Smith)
Treadwell, Abram (“Abe”) Treadwell was
born on September 18, 1832, in the town of Aylmer
in what was then known as Canada West,
today’s Ontario. When he was twenty-four
years old, Abram moved to Illinois and then to
Iowa where he lived near Strawberry Point.
Initially, he worked as a farmer, working one
year on the farm of Franklin Buckley (one of the
“honored pioneers” of the county)
before opening the town’s first harness
business.
On August 12, 1862, he was enrolled in the
military as a private by fellow Canadian Charles
Heath, a Strawberry Point dentist. At Dubuque, on
August 18, 1862, they and other enlistees were
mustered in as Company B and, on September 9th,
ten companies were mustered as the 21st regiment
of Iowa’s volunteer infantry. Abram was
present when they left for war on September 16th
and during their service in Missouri at Rolla,
Salem, Houston and Hartville.
On January 31, 1863, he was detached for
temporary service with the Chief
Quartermaster’s Department. The regiment was
camped at Iron Mountain when Abe was relieved
from the Quartermaster’s Department and
rejoined the regiment on March 4th. That same
day, Myron Knight, a comrade and near neighbor at
home, wrote that he and Abram went to nearby
Middle Brook “on business” and, on
March 8th, that they “went down to the
Knob” (Pilot Knob).
From Iron Mountain the regiment went to Ste.
Genevieve where Abram was promoted to 5th
Corporal and then to Milliken’s Bend where
General Grant was organizing a large army for the
purpose of capturing the Confederate stronghold
at Vicksburg. As the army moved slowly south
across and around bayous and swamps on the west
side of the Mississippi, many became ill and were
left behind as the rest of the army moved on.
Among the sick left at Judge Perkin’s
Somerset plantation were Abram Treadwell, Jim
Bethard, John Crop and other convalescents from
the 21st Iowa and other Union regiments together
with about 350 men of Colonel Owen’s 60th
Indiana.
On May 30, 1863, after learning that a large
Confederate force under John Walker was moving in
their direction, Colonel Owen moved his regiment
and the lightly armed convalescents closer to a
levee and kept an anxious watch. On the morning
of the 31st, shots were exchanged. About 8:00
a.m., under cover of artillery, they destroyed
supplies, rushed on board the Forest Queen,
and made their escape. On June 2d, they reached
their regiment on the siege line at the rear of
Vicksburg and Myron Knight noted that: "Abe
Treadwell returned to the Regt. was left at
Perkins Plantation sick - with the tents and the
rest of the clothing left behind."
Abram was promoted to Sergeant and participated
in the balance of the siege of Vicksburg and a
subsequent expedition to and siege of Jackson.
Back in Vicksburg on August 13th, he loaned $8.00
to Myron who was heading home on a furlough.
Starting with the death of the regiment’s
Lieutenant Colonel, Cornelius Dunlap, on May 22,
1863, a series of events (involving several
members of the regiment, personal issues, and the
number of men on the regiment’s muster
rolls) resulted in a delay in the commissioning
and mustering-in of Salue Van Anda to take
Dunlap’s place, and William Crooke to take
Van Anda’s place as Major, and William Lyons
to take Crooke’s place as Captain, and Abe
Treadwell to take Crooke’s place as 1st
Lieutenant.
Abe was commissioned as 1st Lieutenant by
Governor Kirkwood on November 12, 1863, but it
would be more than eight months before he was
mustered into the position and signed the oath of
office. Despite the lengthy delay, he performed
the duties of 1st Lieutenant and was recognized
by others in the company as being their 1st
Lieutenant. On January 17, 1864, they were in
Texas when Jim Bethard wrote to his wife,
Caroline: "We also have a new 1st lieutenant
his name is Abram Treadwell he was a private in
the start and has gone up by degrees to 1st
lieutenant he puts on a considerable of style but
I think he will make a verry good Lieut he is
verry particular to have every thing done up
according to the army regulations"
In February, Abe was ordered to Davenport to
assist the recruiting service and, on February
24th, Myron Knight wrote: "Abram Treadwell
with several others left for Iowa after other
recruits - let him have my overcoat to wear
home."
When Abram returned in late April, Myron noted
that, “Abe Treadwell arrived from home -
also two new recruits for our Co.” The
recruits were William Carpenter and Andrew
Hughes, two eighteen-year-olds from Winneshiek
County. Andrew had less than five months to live.
From Texas the regiment returned to Louisiana
and, on June 28, 1864, was stationed near the
Terrebonne rail station when, with warm summer
weather approaching, Myron wrote on June 28,
1864, that “Abe Treadwell and I sent a box
of clothing to New Orleans to be expressed
home.”
The following month, order was restored to the
company hierarchy when Captain Lyons returned
after four months with a pioneer corps and, on
July 6, 1864, Abe signed the oath, agreeing:
I will faithfully discharge
the duties of First Lieutenant of Company B
of the 21st Regiment Volunteer Infantry of
the State of Iowa, during my term of office,
according to the best of my skill and
ability. So help me God.
Muster rolls noted that Abram was
entitled to “increased pay” for the
services he had performed as 1st Lieutenant
before signing the oath and, on November 6, 1864,
Jim Bethard wrote from their camp near
Arkansas’ White River: "Our 1st
Lieutenant is a man of good sound sense and sober
and steady habits he never drinks to excess is
allways the same, is well liked by all and makes
a good officer; he came out as a private."
On February 27, 1865, Captain Lyons was detached
to again take command of a pioneer corps, this
time during the spring’s Mobile Campaign. On
the 28th, Abe Treadwell was ordered to take
command of the company during Lyons’
absence. In June, they were in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana. Lyons returned and Abe Treadwell was
relieved of temporary command of the company as
they prepared to be mustered out of service. The
June 30th muster roll noted that Abe was entitled
to increased pay for commanding the company
during Lyons’ absence.
Abe was mustered out with the regiment on July
15, 1865, and was discharged from the military at
Clinton on July 24th. On September 24, 1865, he
married Emily Agnes Gager. Emily’s parents,
James P. and Jane Gager, had moved to Lodomillo
Township in 1852 and bought a farm from Frank
Ruff. They sold part of it, but built their home
at the Grange Hall corner.
Abram and Emily had four children: Mark Gager
Treadwell (on June 29, 1866), Ray D. Treadwell
(on February 14, 1871), Lynn Curtis Treadwell (on
July 27, 1875) and Charles Clark Treadwell (on
May 18, 1881). By 1880, they had a 120 acre
“thoroughly stocked” farm with 80 acres
under cultivation. In 1883, Abe joined the Henry
Howard Post, Post 259, of the G.A.R. in
Strawberry Point.
Despite having served many months as a 1st
Lieutenant while not holding that rank, despite
the earlier commission from the Governor, and
despite muster rolls saying he was entitled to
increased pay, that pay had never been received.
Abe hired attorney Thomas Updegraff who had a
private bill for Abram’s relief introduced
in the 54th Congress and again in the 55th
Congress, but there it languished. Eventually, on
May 14, 1902, the Committee on War Claims of the
House of Representatives sent the matter to the
federal Court of Claims for a review of the
facts.
An 1863 Enrollment Act (aka Civil War Military
Draft Act) had addressed the number of officers
regiments were to have depending on the number of
men on the rolls. Pursuant to that act, a General
Order said that, if a regiment were “reduced
below the minimum number allowed by law,”
but was above half the minimum, it was to be
deprived of a Colonel and an Assistant Surgeon.
When Abram performed service as 1st Lieutenant
prior to signing the oath, the regiment had been
below the minimum number “and for this
reason, and no other, he was refused muster and
recognition in the grade of first lieutenant
during said period” and was paid merely the
amount allowed to sergeants. By the time of the
court’s findings, Abram was almost seventy
years old and the pay was more than thirty-five
years delinquent. In Abram Treadwell v. The
United States, Congressional No. 10811, the court
found that, “if the said Abram Treadwell
should be deemed first lieutenant,” he was
entitled to $450.40 (the difference between his
sergeant’s pay and a 1st lieutenant’s
pay) less $8.62 income taxes. Abram’s
military and pension records don’t indicate
if the pay was actually received.
Meanwhile, in 1892, Abe applied for, but was
denied, an invalid pension. In 1904, he reapplied
under the general law of June 27, 1890, and a
pension was granted. He was receiving $30.00
monthly, payable quarterly, when he died on
January 19, 1915. Emily died on June 6, 1924.
They are buried in Strawberry Point Cemetery as
are two of their children (Mark and Ray),
Emily’s parents, and her brother (Edgar).
~*~*~
Valiquet, John B.
John Valiquet was born near Montreal in what was
then known as Canada East. He ran away from home
when he was a boy and made his way to Syracuse,
New York, where he spent the next three or four
years. He then returned to Montreal and learned
the stone cutting business, a business he pursued
in both Montreal and Syracuse for another twelve
or fourteen years. In Belleview, Canada, he met
Ira and Mary Sargent and their daughter Samantha
who was married to Ashley Ely. John stayed with
them for about two years “cutting timber and
attending to the horses and doing the chores
about the house.” About 1859, they all moved
to Iowa and settled near Enfield and then
Strawberry Point where they made their home.
Abraham Lincoln was elected President on November
6, 1860. Secession of several states seemed
imminent, but the Clayton County Journal
was unconvinced. "We do not believe that the
people of South Carolina desire a dissolution of
the Union simply because a Northern man was
elected President. There are only a few hot-heads
in our opinion who make all this disturbance and
they cannot effect anything.” The Journal
was wrong. South Carolina seceded on December
20th, other states followed and the Journal
took the threat more seriously. “If war they
want, war they shall have. 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.”
On April 12, 1861, Confederate guns fired on Fort
Sumter. War followed and quickly escalated. On
July 9, 1862, Governor Kirkwood received a
telegram asking him to raise five regiments as
part of the President’s call for 300,000
three-year men to augment those already in the
field. It was in response to this that the
state’s 21st regiment of volunteer infantry
was raised, primarily in the northeastern
counties. Mustered into federal service on
September 9, 1862, it left Dubuque on board the Henry
Clay on the 16th and started south. Walter
McNally said that after a night on Rock Island
they “moved down to Montrose a Towne at the
head of the lower rappid we heare had to go a
shore againe at about none on the 19th heare we
went abord the cares and went by raleroad to
Kearkuk and went a board the steamer Hawkeye
State.”
The regiment’s early service was in Missouri
and, on March 11, 1863, they marched into the old
French town of Ste. Genevieve on the Mississippi
River. From there they were transported
downstream to Milliken’s Bend where they
became part of a large army under the command of
General Grant. They crossed the river to
Bruinsburg, Mississippi, on April 30th,
participated in the successful Vicksburg
campaign, saw service in southwestern Louisiana
and, on November 23rd, left New Orleans for the
coast of Texas. By then, due primarily to deaths
and discharges as a result of disease and wounds,
only 643 of the original 985 men were still on
the muster rolls. More enlistments were needed
and recruiting efforts intensified.
John was illiterate and didn’t know when he
was born but, on February 29, 1864, with his name
spelled as “John Valiquet” and his age
listed as forty-four, John signed, by mark, a
Volunteer Enlistment. Whether the spelling and
age were correct is not known. He was described
as being 5' 4" tall with hazel eyes and grey
hair; occupation farmer. Assigned to Company D,
he was mustered in at Dubuque on March 16th,
transported downstream to New Orleans and then,
with other recruits, transported across the Gulf
to Texas. He reached the regiment on Matagorda
Island on April 11th and 2nd Lieutenant Gilbert
Cooley noted, “Ralph A Weeks, Nehamiah
Aldrich, John Valiquest and Wm A Hamer arrived
from Davenport Ia. Recruits.”
In a postwar deposition, Justin Thurber,
testified that, “pretty soon after he
arrived at Matagorda Island and before regiment
left there, that in conversation John B. Valiquet
stated that while on the boat coming to Matagorda
Island, he woke up one night to find a woman
laying alongside of him, he believes he had a
good thing and topped her off several times, but
in the morning he found she was a black woman and
soon after he found that he was pretty badly
burned, at the time he Valiquet was complaining
of his privates and walked rather funny.”
John had contracted syphilis. He continued
serving with the regiment and was present when
they left Texas in June, 1864, and during five
weeks when they were stationed at Morganza where
John and many other members of the company
complained of “sore eyes.” In early
September they camped near the mouth of the White
River for several days before proceeding up the
river for service. On November 25th, their
service in Arkansas ended, they boarded the City
of Memphis and three days later they
debarked and made camp near Memphis’ Elmwood
Cemetery while John Valiquet, Charles Kimber,
Eric Paulson and several others were sent to a
general hospital. In April, 1865, John was
transferred to the Grant general hospital on
Willetts Point in New York. There, on May 26,
1865, he was mustered out pursuant to a
telegraphic order from the War Department.
John resumed his life in Clayton County until
moving to Jewell, Kansas, in 1871. While there,
he homesteaded and worked as a farmer but in the
fall of 1876 “on account of his eyes being
so bad he sold the claim for what he could get
and returned to Strawberry Point.” The
following January he retained local attorney B.
P. Rawson and filed an application for an invalid
pension. Since claims at that time had to be
based on a disability incurred in the military,
John referenced his “sore eyes which have
become chronic.” A year later, with the
claim still pending, he joined Gilbert Cooley,
Burt Snedigar, John Lowe and several others at a
Company D reunion in Volga City.
Numerous affidavits were filed on John’s
behalf attesting to his good health before
entering the military and his eye problems after
being discharged, but the pension office
wasn’t convinced his problems were
service-related and ordered an investigation.
Depositions were taken of eleven people including
John, six former comrades, three of the four
doctors who had treated John after his discharge,
and Samantha Ely who had ordered prescriptions
for John and applied lotion to his eyes.
John attributed the problem to blowing sand while
they were still in Texas, to blowing dirt while
clearing a campground at the mouth of the White
River and to poison ivy while serving farther up
the river in Arkansas. John White thought he
first heard of the syphilis while at Morganza,
but said Valiquet had sore eyes when they were
back in Texas. John Lowe testified that his first
recollection was while the regiment was at
Morganza “at which time he learned that
Valequet was afflicted with syphilis and was
using the company basin to wash his body,”
something that was then reported to officers. He
also remembered that while on the White River,
“Valequet had the syphillis so bad that he
could hardly walk” and the condition
“created general indignation throughout the
company.” Gilbert Cooley said the first he
knew of John’s eye problem was when they
were at the mouth of the White River and he was
never aware of John having any other problems.
(Four years later, when supporting Burt
Snedigar’s claim of sore eyes, Cooley said
“we had a mess pan which we used for a wash
pan Valiquette, as was afterwards found out, took
this pan into his tent after night and washed his
penace in the pan. Mr. Kimbro [Kimber] the Co.
cook was the first to wash in the pan and took
the sore eyes first and right following that some
ten or twelve of the Co. took sore eyes and it is
supposed they took them from washing in that
pan.”) Charles Kimber said they were at
Morganza Bend when another soldier reported to
the officers that John Valiquet was “using
the Company basin, a kind of mess pan, for
washing his privates, the whole company was
excited about it when it became generally known
but many did not know the consequences” and
it was about two weeks later that the eyes of
Charles and several others “commenced to be
sore.”
Dr. Hunt testified that he treated John at
Morganza Bend and his records reflected treatment
for catarrh, colds, constipation and poison.
There was no mention of syphilis, but the doctor
admitted “it was the practice of affiant
where a soldier had syphilis or other venereal
disease and he was able to be about not to report
him as having such disease.” It was, he
said, “thought best not to place or record
the fact so long as the men tried to cure
themselves and were clearly attended to their
duty.” It was only when a man entered a
general hospital that the doctor “always
endorsed the correct disease.”
In his report to the pension office, the examiner
pointed out that John had blamed his sore eyes on
three different incidents, none related to
syphilis. According to the examiner, John was
looked upon by some of the “first people of
Strawberry Point as a lacivious old sinner he
having been known to borrow or beg money to spend
it with low characters that a dog would hardly
bark at” and members of the company
continued to blame John for their sore eyes. A
week later, John was examined by Strawberry
Point’s Dr. K. F. Purdy who said “both
eyes almost devoid of sight - result of
inflammation,” but “I can’t find
any posetive symptoms of syphilis. Though a
suspicious looking cicatrix on prepuce was
accounted for by him as resulting from frost bite
which I regard as a rather thin story.”
Two men who had known John for more than
twenty-two years said they “know him to be a
hard working laboring man and considered him of
regular good character and think he is and was
free from sexual licentiousness.”
John’s attorney argued to Thomas Updegraff,
a member of Congress, that several who knew John
had sworn to his good character and considered
him “free from suspicion of
licentiousness” and an examining doctor did
not think John’s condition was related to
“intemperance or other bad habits.”
Congressman Updegraff told the Commissioner of
Pensions that he knew many of those who supported
John’s application and “there are no
more truthful reputable men.” Despite that,
John’s pension claim was denied and no
record has been found of remaining life. Burial
records indicate “S. Valiquist,” white,
male, laborer, age seventy-five, nationality
French, died on January 29, 1883, in the
county’s insane asylum and was buried in its
cemetery. While the age and spelling imply this
is someone other than John, the transcription
could be wrong since John didn’t know how to
spell his name or when he was born, handwritten
records were often hard to decipher, and no other
record has been found about anyone named “S.
Valiquist.”
[Clayton co. coordinator's note:
Research continues in an effort to confirm that
John Valiquet is the Civil War soldier buried in
the County cemetery ...S. Ferrall, August 2018]
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