W. P. BOLTON
W.P. Bolton resides upon a farm in section 34, which he purchased of Joseph Everett, and settled upon in 1876. Mr. Bolton was born in Indiana in October, 1804. In 1855 he emigrated from that State, to Jones county Iowa, where he improved a farm and lived until 1870. In that year he came to Cass county. W.W., Bolton, a son of W.P. Bolton, was born in Fayette county, Indiana, November 14, 1840, and came to Iowa with his father in 1855. He enlisted August 6, 1862, in company A, of the Sixth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, and served more than three years. For about eighteen months after his enlistment, the regiment served under General Sibley, operating against the Sioux Indians in Minnesota and Dakota. During the time, he participated in several hard fought battles with the Indians. He was at what is known as the battle of Birch Couler, September 7, 1862. In this fight they were surrounded by about eight hundred savages of the Sioux tribe. The command of troops at this battle consisted of only one hundred and forty-two men, one hundred of whom were killed before reinforcements arrived, and the Indians were repulsed. He was at the battle of Wood Lake on the 22d of the same month, and the battle of Big Hill, July 23, 1863. Two days later, he was in the battle of Buffalo Lake, where he was wounded. The battle of Stone Lake was fought on the 27th of the same month. At the close of Sibley's campaign he was transferred with his regiment to the seat of war, and placed under command of General A.J. Smith, of the Sixteenth Army Corps. He took part in several severe campaigns and battles, including the siege of Mobile, Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely. The regiment was afterwards sent to Montgomery, Alabama, and in August, 1865, was returned to St. Paul, and discharged. A brother of the subject of this sketch, E.W. Bolton, was a member of the Twnety-first Iowa Infantry, and died in the service March 22, 1862.
Transcribed by Gloria Goltiani from "History of Cass County, Iowa. Together With Sketches of its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens." Springfield, Ill.: Continental Historical Company, 1884, pg. 566.
