A Damned Iowa Greyhound: The Civil War Letters of William Henry Harrison Clayton

Notes

NOTES 1. "We Were Mustered into the Service Yesterday" 1 At the start of the Civil War, the u.s. War Department directed Iowa Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood to have volunteer regiments from his state gather for training at Keokuk. Camp Elsworth in that community hosted many of Iowa's first soldiers, and in the following months the state opened a few other training facilities. But when Iowa began to muster new volunteer regiments into service after President Lincoln's call for troops in the summer of1862, state officials recognized the need for even more camps. Accordingly, on August 11, 1862, Iowa Adjutant General Nathaniel B. Baker announced the opening ofCamp Lincoln, in Keokuk. The 19th Iowa regiment would be the first to occupy the camp, which was located on 18th Street just south of Lexington Grov~. 2 Grace Smith Clayton. A native of Ireland, she had emigrated to the United States in 1817, settling in Pittsburgh. 3 A station on the Keokuk, Fort Des Moines & Minnesota Railroad line, three miles north of Keosauqua in Van Buren County. The location is currently known as Mount Zion. 4 George G. Wright, a native ofIndiana, had become a member ofthe State Supreme Court of Iowa in 1855. He would later serve Iowa in the U.S. Senate. 5 The Simpson House was a combination hotel and boarding house, used during the Civil War as a temporary billet for troops who could not be quartered in a barracks. 6 A unit ofthe Union army, the company officially consisted ofeighty-two privates, thirteen noncommissioned officers, two lieutenants, and one captain. It could contain a maximum of 101 men. Ten companies normally made up a regiment. 7 A community founded by John A. Drake in 1846 in the middle of Davis County. Francis M. Drake, the son of the founder, became a major general in the Civil War, was elected governor of Iowa in 1895, and helped found the university in Des Moines that bears his name today. 8 The 19th Iowa was officially enlisted, or mustered, into federal service on August 21,1862, by Lieutenant Charles J. Ball ofthe 13th Regiment ofthe Regular U.S. Army. 9 Abner J. Buckles, a twenty-eight-year-old neighbor of Clayton's and his best friend. 10 The ten companies in a Union regiment were designated by the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, and K. 11 A group of four to eight soldiers, one of whom would prepare food for the others. All the individuals in Clayton)s mess listed Troy as their residence when mustered into service. 12 Merrett Mooney) age twenty-nine. 13 Absalom Nincehelser) age twenty-nine. 14 Ages twenty-two and nineteen) respectively. 15 Age twenty-one. 16 Norville Utt) the oldest member of the mess at thirty-two. 17 Charles Leach ofTroy. 18 Captain Theodore W. Richmond of Keosauqua. 19 Clayton listed himself as five feet) seven and one-half inches in height and gave his weight as 165 pounds - one inch shorter but twenty pounds heavier than the average Union soldier during the war. 20 A bonus paid to enlistees in the Union army. Clayton did not realize that Congress had appropriated funds for a $100 bounty) to be paid in installments. His regiment had received only a partial payment at Camp Lincoln. 21 These were .577 caliber rifled muskets) manufactured at the Royal SmallArms Factory at Enfield) England. Over 800)000 were purchased by both sides during the Civil War. 22 Starting on April 19) 1861) the Union navy attempted to prevent supplies from other countries from reaching the Confederacy by patrolling the waters off the southern coastline. 23 Colonel Benjamin Crabb of Washington had been a captain of the 7th Iowa early in the war. Although -taken prisoner at the Battle of Belmont on November 7) 1861) he had distinguished himself in action at that engagement before his capture. He had later returned to his regiment but had been discharged in August 1862. 24 This would become the 30th Regiment of Iowa Volunteer Infantry. 25 The county seat of Davis County. 26 Business Corners was a community in Van Buren County) located one mile north of Douds. It no longer exists. 27 John Strang) twenty) of Portland) a community in northern Van Buren County. After the war) the residents of Portland decided to change the name of their town to Leandro. 28 An enlisted person assigned to do various duties for an officer. 29...