Civil War Union Brigadier General. Born in Union City, Union County, Indiana, his education at Bloomington (Indiana) College provided the foundation for his future career as a lawyer. After admittance to the bar, he emigrated to South Eastern Iowa and became a prominent attorney in Fort Madison and subsequently in Keokuk. Purchasing large tracts of land in the 1840s, he was at a time the “most extensive landowner in Iowa history”. He would later become the successful owner and President of the Des Moines Valley Railroad. As “an out and out abolitionist”, he entered Civil War service as Colonel in the 15th Iowa Volunteer Infantry on February 22, 1862 after an appointment from Iowa Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood. On April 6, 1862 at the Battle of Shiloh, he received a near fatal wound. Astride his horse, a 'minie’ ball passed through the right side of his neck. Falling to the ground motionless, he appeared dead to all who looked on. His “body” was recovered and returned to the rear and after a moment of uncertainty, he regained his “consciousness” and “remounted his horse, and, with blood streaming from the wound, rejoined” the fight to give the Confederates a honorable defeat. The 15th Iowa Infantry would later participate in the fighting at the Battle of Corinth in October 1862, however he was too ill to lead it into action. Receiving a promotion to Brigadier General on April 9, 1863 (rank from March 13), he was directed to Lake Providence, Louisiana to take command of a brigade, which consisted of both black and white soldiers in the Federal XVII Corps. He is quoted as saying “every colored soldier who stops a rebel bullet saves a white man’s life”. In the autumn of 1863, he traveled to Cairo, Illinois to become the commanding officer at that post. On April 4, 1864, his Civil War career came to a conclusion with his resignation from service. Returning to Iowa, he would become instrumental in Des Moines future and development when his Des Moines Valley Railroad became “the first railroad to connect Iowa’s state capital with the outside world”. After suffering several strokes in the last years of his life and the cumulative effects of Bright’s disease, he fell into a coma two days before his death at his home in Keokuk in 1874.
Civil War Union Brigadier General. Born in Union City, Union County, Indiana, his education at Bloomington (Indiana) College provided the foundation for his future career as a lawyer. After admittance to the bar, he emigrated to South Eastern Iowa and became a prominent attorney in Fort Madison and subsequently in Keokuk. Purchasing large tracts of land in the 1840s, he was at a time the “most extensive landowner in Iowa history”. He would later become the successful owner and President of the Des Moines Valley Railroad. As “an out and out abolitionist”, he entered Civil War service as Colonel in the 15th Iowa Volunteer Infantry on February 22, 1862 after an appointment from Iowa Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood. On April 6, 1862 at the Battle of Shiloh, he received a near fatal wound. Astride his horse, a 'minie’ ball passed through the right side of his neck. Falling to the ground motionless, he appeared dead to all who looked on. His “body” was recovered and returned to the rear and after a moment of uncertainty, he regained his “consciousness” and “remounted his horse, and, with blood streaming from the wound, rejoined” the fight to give the Confederates a honorable defeat. The 15th Iowa Infantry would later participate in the fighting at the Battle of Corinth in October 1862, however he was too ill to lead it into action. Receiving a promotion to Brigadier General on April 9, 1863 (rank from March 13), he was directed to Lake Providence, Louisiana to take command of a brigade, which consisted of both black and white soldiers in the Federal XVII Corps. He is quoted as saying “every colored soldier who stops a rebel bullet saves a white man’s life”. In the autumn of 1863, he traveled to Cairo, Illinois to become the commanding officer at that post. On April 4, 1864, his Civil War career came to a conclusion with his resignation from service. Returning to Iowa, he would become instrumental in Des Moines future and development when his Des Moines Valley Railroad became “the first railroad to connect Iowa’s state capital with the outside world”. After suffering several strokes in the last years of his life and the cumulative effects of Bright’s disease, he fell into a coma two days before his death at his home in Keokuk in 1874.
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