Company K
First Regiment Iowa Cavalry Veteran Volunteers
The "Union Rangers"
1861-1866

Brief history of the Company, Roster & soldier notes, Photos, Personal Sketches & Detatched Staff Reports

Company K - The "Union Rangers"

Was enrolled in the county of Clayton, a portion coming from Allamakee and Winneshiek counties. It was organized at McGregor, with Robert L. Freeman as Captain; Dr. Thomas H. Barnes, afterward Captain, First, and Albert L. Freeman Second Lieutenants. Captain Freeman was a soldier in the Mexican war, and it was chiefly through his perservering efforts that the company was organized. It went into quarters May 15th, 1861. The following history of the organization of the company, by Captain Freeman, will be read with interest:

"The writer of this epistle was quietly and methodically pursuing his way in order to hew out his fortune, in the little hamlet of McGregor, on the border of the Mississippi river, in the State of Iowa, when a call for 75,000 men came from our lamented President Lincoln. Thinking my services might be of some little value, I commenced the formation of a company. A drum and fife were brought into requisition. The streets were daily paraded. The usual rugtag and bobtail of followers and boys trooped after the music. A company roster was made out and freely signed. Merchants, lawyers, doctors and artisans all seemed anxious to join. Meetings were held, patriotic speeches were delivered, in which sixty to ninety days were allowed to completely annihlate our Southern neighbors and drive what few of them were left back into the Union. It was decided to call the company the "Union Rangers," and your humble servant was selected to visit the Governor of the State in order to be incorporated at once into the army and sent to the front.

"In the meantime the 75,000 call had been filled. The battle of Bull Run had been fought and lost to us, and another call had been ordered. The Governor said no cavalry had been called for from Iowa as yet, but to go back and keep my company together, as they would certainly be called for. So I returned and waited patiently day after day, and finally, when patience was about exhausted, a telegram came notifying me to hold my company in readiness to report to Colonel Fitz Henry Warren, First Iowa Cavalry, at a moment's notice. Then came consternation in our camp - a general stampede and back-out of so large a number of the would-be soldiers on paper that it nearly depleted the company. But by the heroic efforts of those really in earnest the company was finally made up again and ready when the call came. The steamer War Eagle was chartered to carry us to Burlington, where we arrived August 1st, and were mustered into the service of the United States August 17th, 1861, as Company K, First Iowa Cavalry."

Personal Sketch

Robert L. Freeman was born in New Jersey in 1828. His family moved to Ohio a few years after his birth, but he did not remain there long. Mr. Freeman was possessed while young with a very roving disposition, and while still quite a lad ho served as cabin boy on a steamer between St. Louis and New Orleans. At the breaking out of the Mexican war he enlisted in the United States army and went to Mexico, where he was wounded by a bayonet and honorably discharged after five months' service. The Captain still bears the scar of the bayonet on his right arm, and he suffered for nearly two years with the wound. In 1849 he came to California on a hunt for gold, working on the Feather river and at Mokelumne Hill.

In 1851 he returned via the Isthmus route to Clayton county, Iowa. Here he entered into business and followed it successfully for five years. During his residence in Iowa he was married to Mary L. Arnold, who has since shared his joys and sorrows and is still his loving helpmeet. After being in business for some time, Mr. Freeman began the study of law, passed an examination and was admitted to practice in 1859.

At the breaking out of the war in 1861 he recruited Company K, First Iowa Cavalry, and served three years. After the war he was elected recorder of Clayton county, Iowa, and was re-elected to the same office for three more terms, serving in all four terms as county recorder.

In 1877 he removed to California, taking up his residence in Oakland. About five years ago he came to Tulare county. where he has resided ever since. He became Secretary of the Alta Irrigation District; and in 1889 was appointed Receiver of the United States Land Office at Visalia.

Detatched Staff Report - Captain Robert L. Freeman

Officer issuing order, Colonel H. Bertram, commanding First Brigade, Third Division, Seventh Army Corps. Number of order, unknown. Place of service: in the field directly after battle of Prairie Grove. Served under Colonel Bertram, Col. Clover, Colonel Daniel Anderson and others commanding the brigade. Nature of service: Acting Assistant Adjutant General. Provost Marshal, Clinton, several months, Captain James M. Russell. Officer issuing order, Lieutenant Colonel J.W. Caldwell. This order was left in the hands of Paymaster Major Smith. Place of service - first, while en route from St. Louis, Missouri, to Davenport, Iowa; second, Davenport, Iowa under Lieutenant Colonel Wm. N. Geer, superintendent of recruiting service in State of Iowa. Date of service, May 15th, 1864 to June 20th, 1864. Nature of service: first, in command of Company B; second, in charge of ordnance and ordnance stores of the First Iowa Cavalry while the regiment was at home on veteran furlough.

Personal Sketch

Lieutenant Albert L. Freeman was born in New Jersey in 1836. Came to Ohio in 1842. Was educated in the high schools of Columbus. Ohio. Has lived in Indiana, in Illinois, in Wisconsin, in Minnesota, in Iowa, in Missouri, in Kansas, and now in Texas. Enlisted in 1861 in First Iowa Cavalry, at McGregor, Iowa. Has been a merchant, farmer, banker and stockman, and is now holding stock and in the mercantile business in the Pan Handle of Texas.

Detatched Staff Report - Lieutenant Albert L. Freeman

Officer issuing order, Colonel Dan Hueston. Place of service and with whom, Sedalia, Missouri, as Assistant Provost Marshal, with Lieutenant Crissy. Date of service, in the spring of 1863. Also at Osceola, Missouri, as Quartermaster and Commissary, in the summer of 1863, by order of Colonel Warren and Major Leffingwell, some two months.

Personal Sketch

Dr. Thos. H. Barnes was born at Coshocton. Ohio, in 1832, and was reared on a farm until he was twenty years old, when he began the study of medicine at Oakland, Ohio, and afterwards graduated at the Iowa State University.

He settled at Volney, Iowa, about 1855, and moved to Waukon about 1858. He enlisted as a private in Company K, First Iowa Cavalry, April 15th, 1861, and resigned as Captain December 16th, 1864.

He returned to Waukon. and again entered upon his profession, in which he was very successful. He spent a great deal of time and money in experimental farming. and built the first silo in Iowa, in 1881. During 1871-2-3 he was chairman of the board of supervisors of Allamakee county. and in 1880 was elected to the State Legislature as Representative. His health failed soon after, caused mainly by injuries to the eyes received in service of his country. [Barnes dictated an accounting of the day he was wounded]

".... we went into camp for the night in a hotel, corralling our horses in the yard that surrounded the barn and house. Before daylight the Johnnies returned and renewed the scrimmage, keeping it up until daylight, when they retreated, after killing James H. Whitford and Oscar Crumb, of Company K, and severely wounding the writer in the hips and filling his eyes with fine broken glass by shooting buckshot through a window, the effect of which is to destroy his sight."

Dr. Barnes was married in 1854 to Miss Julia A. Orr. who died in 1859, leaving one daughter. Ida, now Mrs. L. A. Culbertson, of Ottumwa, Iowa. In 1862 he married Miss Marion E. Ferris, of Waukon, who died November 1st, 1886, leaving three children, Callie, William and Florence.

Dr. Barnes was a man of great liberality, a benefactor to the poor, and few men had more genuine friends in Allamakee county than he. He moved to his ranch near Lattin, Nebraska, in 1887, where he died June 2d, 1889, of general debility, caused by the hardships and wounds received in the service of his country. He was buried between two large pine trees on a sunny hillside—a place of his own choosing—on his ranch, where his body sleeps waiting the last great roll call.

Personal Sketch

James Mitchell Russell was born July 12th, 1840, at Shelby, Ohio, and was educated in the common school. Moved with his parents to the State of Michigan in 1852,and in 1856 moved to Rossville, Allamakee county, Iowa. Enlisted on the 13th day of June, 1861, in Company K, First Iowa Cavalry. Served in the grades of corporal, sergeant, first sergeant, Second Lieutenant and Captain. Discharged with the regiment, March 16th, 1866, at Davenport, Iowa. Residence, Connellsville, Fayette county, Pennsylvania.

Personal Sketch

Lieutenant W.W. Carpenter was born in St. Albans, Vermont, and came west with his parents to Wisconsin when it was a territory, and when thirteen years old ran away from home and was with the Menomonee Indians two years. In the meantime his father moved to Iowa, and he came home in 1860. At the first news of Fort Sumter being fired upon, he enlisted for three months and began recruiting a company in connection with Dr. T.H. Barnes, of Waukon, Iowa, but owing to the rush of troops farther south he could not get in, and shortly after enlisted in Company K, First Iowa Cavalry, for three years or during the war.

Personal Sketch

John Fitzsimmons came to this country in 1850, from the county of Down, Ireland, and lived in Jones county till 1861, when he enlisted in Company K and was mustered in with the company at Burlington, and served with the regiment until 1864. Was mustered out at Davenport, September 9th, 1864. Rank, sergeant.

Detatched Staff Report - Second Lieutenant Charles DuBois

Officers issuing orders, Brigadier General Sturgis and Major General G.A. Custer. Number of orders - first, special No. 1, General Sturgis; second, special order No. 2. Places of service - first, Austin, Texas; second, San Antonio, Texas. Dates of service - first, December 4th, 1865 to January 15th, 1866; second, January 15th, 1865, to February, 1866. Nature of service, engineer and ordnance officer.

Detatched Staff Report - Private Frank Pease

Officer issuing order, H.H. Heath. Place of service and with whom, Clinton, Missouri; Provost Marshal and Quartermaster. Date of service, spring of 1862. Nature of service, captured the forms of a rebel paper, and printed off a lot of papers on the old forms, and then set up the other side with intensely Union matter, so the newspaper presented the anomaly of being one side rebel and one side loyal. (Papers sold lively.) Printing Provost Marshal and Quartermaster blanks.