Roster and Record of Iowa Soldiers in the War of the Rebellion Together with 
Historical Sketches of Volunteer Organizations 1861-1866: 
Vol. 1 1st -8th Regiments-Infantry. Published by authority of the General Assembly, under the 
direction of Brig. Gen. Wm. H. Thrift, Adjutant General. Des Moines; Emory H. English, 
State Printer, E. D. Chassell, State Binder; 1908
INTRODUCTION 
	This Work has been compiled with the provisions of the following act of the Thirty-second General Assembly:  
Chapter 223.
ROSTER OF IOWA SOLDIERS, SAILORS AND MARINES.
H. F. 79.
AN ACT providing for the compilation of a roster of Iowa soldiers, sailors and Marines in the war with Mexico 
and the War of the Rebellion, the Spanish-American and Philippine wars, including military service in the Spirit Lake 
expedition, and other service against the Indians; providing the manner of its publication, distribution and sale and making 
an appropriation therefore:  
Be it Enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Iowa:
Section 1.  That the Governor, Attorney General, Adjutant General, curator of the Historical Department of Iowa, 
and one soldier of the Civil War whose selection shall be made and certified to the Governor by the Commander 
of the Department of Iowa, Grand Army of the Republic, who shall thereupon be commissioned by the Governor, 
which member so selected shall receive the same compensation as that now paid to the trustees of educational 
institutions for the time actually and necessarily employed, shall constitute a board authorized to prepare in form 
for publication a complete roster of all Iowa soldiers, sailors and marines of the war with Mexico, the War of the 
Rebellion, and the Spanish-American and Philippine wars, including the military service of soldiers engaged in the 
Spirit Lake Expedition and other service against the Indians, and State troops rendering active service during the 
war of the Rebellion.
	Section 2.  Said compilation shall contain the main item of record of each officer and soldier, and of each 
organization, so far as the same is obtainable from the records in the Adjutant General’s office, in the War Department 
in Washington, in the official records of the Union Armies, and from other official and reliable sources.  It shall include 
brief historical sketches of the organization, service and engagements of all Iowa regiments, and other Iowa organizations, 
with summaries of casualties, list of soldiers confined in Confederate prisons, and those buried in National Cemeteries.
	Section 3.  Said compilation shall be under the direction of the Adjutant General, and the sum of seven thousand 
five hundred dollars ($7,500) or so much thereof as may be necessary is hereby appropriated from any moneys, not 
otherwise appropriated in the treasury of the State, for the employment of extra help and other necessary expense in 
making said compilation.  The compilation shall be divided into volumes of proper size and shall be printed by the State 
printer, shall be bound by the State binder in half sheep, and paid for as other public documents.  The edition shall be 
ten thousand of each volume and shall be disposed of as follows:  Twelve sets to the State library, twelve sets to the 
historical library, six sets to the State Historical Society, one set to each public library in the State and one set to each 
Grand Army Post in the State and one set to each Camp of Spanish war veterans.  The foregoing sets shall be distributed 
free; all other sets and volumes shall be sold by the Adjutant General at actual cost, to be determined by the Executive 
Council, and the proceeds paid into the State treasury.  As itemized account shall be kept and vouchers filed to be audited 
by the Executive Council and warrants drawn by the State Auditor to pay expenses provided for in this act.
	Section 4.  This act being deemed of immediate importance shall take effect and be in force from and after its 
publication in the Register and Leader and the Des Moines Capital, daily newspapers published in the City of Des Moines, 
Polk County, Iowa.	
Approved April 10, A. D. 1907.
In compliance with the requirement contained in section 1 of the act, Col. Geo. W. Crosley was selected as 
the Civil War soldier member of the board, which was then constituted as follows:  Albert B. Cummins, Governor; 
H. W. Byers, Attorney General; W. H. Thrift, Adjutant General; Charles Aldrich, Curator of the Historical, 
Department, and Col. Geo. W. Crosley.
On the 25th day of May, 1907, the board met in the office of the Governor, and organized by electing Governor 
Albert B. Cummins, chairman, and Col. Geo. W. Crosley, Secretary.  The secretary was instructed to supervise 
the work of compilation-under the direction of the Adjutant General-and these two members were requested to 
formulate plans for the work and, when such plans were completed, to submit same for the consideration of the 
board.   It was declared to be the earnest purpose of the board to have the work prosecuted with energy, and 
with this purpose in view, the preliminary work prosecuted with energy, and, with this purpose to view, the 
preliminary work of investigation was promptly begun.
On June 5th, the general plan of the work was submitted, and adopted by the board.  With some modifications 
and changes, the plan has been carried out as shown in these volumes.
	It has been a difficult task to condense the history of the different organizations into what could be fairly 
considered “a brief historical sketch,” as prescribed in the act.  History has never dealt, and perhaps never will be 
able to deal, in the most satisfactory manner, with all those whose achievements go to make up history, even where 
there are no limitations as to time and space.  In the preparation of these sketches, the compiler has confined 
himself exclusively to the facts as shown by the military records, and to his own personal knowledge of the 
conditions that pertained to the common experience of the volunteer soldiers of the War of the Rebellion, a 
knowledge gained by experience as a soldier in active service from the commencement to the close of that war.  
He could at best point out only the most conspicuous figures and events as contained in these reports.  In the 
long period of service which the greater number of these Iowa organizations rendered, that but few could be 
described in detail, and none with that particularity of detail which would do them full justice.  The brief paragraph 
opposite the name of each soldier, which follows the history of the organization to which he belonged, is also 
compiled from the official records.  It shows only the leading features of his service.  It does not and can not be 
made to show in detail the service he performed, or what he endured and suffered, and notwithstanding the 
careful research of the official records, there will no doubt be some few cases in which even this brief paragraph 
will be found, either in part or as a whole, incorrect.  In all such cases, the injustice to the soldier is due to the 
official records, and not to carelessness or neglect on the part of those who prepared these revised rosters.  
General N. B. Baker, who was the Adjutant General of Iowa during, and for a number of years after, the War 
of the Rebellion and who was a man of great ability, had the wisdom and foresight to require of the Iowa officers 
copies of their official reports and returns for preservation in his office, in order that the military record of each 
organization might be preserved for all time.  For this purpose blanks were prepared and sent to the commanding 
officers of Iowa regiments in the field, upon which to make copies of all their reports and returns.  To add emphasis 
to this requirement, and as an evidence of appreciation of the importance of compliance with it, the Tenth General 
Assembly of the State of Iowa adopted the following concurrent resolution:
Resolved, by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring, that the Colonels of Iowa regiments engaged 
in the service of their country, be respectfully requested to furnish the Adjutant General of the State, at their 
earliest convenience, with a brief history of their respective regiments, showing what they have accomplished 
and endured, not only on the battlefield, but upon the march and in camp, with a view that the information thus 
obtained may hereafter be embodied into a permanent history and monument of the patriotism, the heroism, 
and achievements of the soldiers of Iowa.
	Resolved, that the Adjutant General be requested to communicate the above resolution to the 
Colonels of all Iowa regiments.
	JACOB BUTLER, 	Speaker of the House of Representatives.
ENOCH W. EASTMAN, President of the Senate
	Approved February 23m 1864,
		WILLIAM M. STONE,  Governor.  
	There seems to have been a general disposition to comply with these requests, but, in the exigencies of war, 
some of these reports and returns were lost in transmission, some were captured by the enemy, and, at the close of 
the war, the records of the office of the Adjutant General were still, in many respects, in a very incomplete and 
unsatisfactory condition.  General Baker made every effort to remedy these defects by appealing to the officers, 
who had returned to their homes, to supply the information that would enable him to complete the records.  The 
information thus obtained was not complete, because of the fact that it was mostly given from memory.  A part of 
these incomplete records have been corrected by information obtained from the War Department in Washington 
and from surviving Iowa soldiers.  It is greatly to be regretted that this work of revision was not undertaken at an 
earlier date, when a larger number of the surviving soldiers of the war were still living.  After the lapse of nearly half 
a century, it is difficult for most men to remember with accuracy events that did not make the most lasting impression 
upon their minds.  They can remember the most important events distinctly, but, when it comes to recalling the 
personal record of comrades in their company or regiment, it is only of those with whom their relations were most 
intimate that they can give positive information.  There was now and then a soldier who kept a diary in which he 
recorded the principal events that occurred during his term of service.  The compiler has personal knowledge of 
only one such private record that covered a period of three years’ continuous service in the field.  Could all the 
records of this kind which have been preserved have been collected, they would no doubt have been of great 
value in compiling a work of this character.
	The errors and omissions which may occur in these revised rosters must therefore be accounted for by the 
causes before mentioned.  In many instances the only record obtainable is the name, age, date of enlistment, residence, 
date of muster into the service of the United States, and the date of discharge or muster out of the soldier.  In such 
cases, particularly where the soldier served for the full term of his regiment and was mustered out with it, the inference 
is that his history is identical with that of his regiment.  He may have participated in every battle in which his regiment 
was engaged, but, as only the names of those who were killed, wounded, captured, or missing in action, or those who 
were favored by special mention, appear in the official reports, his name would not appear as a participant.  The men 
who had the good fortune to go through their entire term of service without sustaining any serious injury, and who 
were also so fortunate as to have escaped being the victim of some form of sickness, have no record-as a rule-except 
that of continuous service, but such a record is remarkable, and certainly most commendable.
	Col. George H. Turner, who compiled the record of service of Michigan Volunteers in the War of the Rebellion, 
in his introductory refers to the class of soldiers above alluded to, and also to those reported as missing in action, in the 
following forceful and truthful statement.
	It scarcely occurred to the officers who made their official returns to the different departments that forty years 
after the conflict an individual history of each soldier who participated would be written +++The hardships of a campaign, 
the duties exacted night and day, the constant attention to matters of vital importance, are not conductive to literary efforts 
of biography or general history.  It is pathetic to know that thousands upon thousands of Union soldiers who participated 
in many of the most desperate battles of the Civil War have no records of such battles to their credit in the official reports.  
A limited number were fortunate enough to have their names recorded by their officers as participating in such engagements.
	It was sometimes impossible in the stirring times of war for commanding officers to give authentic and final history 
of men who disappeared in a great battle, as in many cases the bodies of the dead could not be found, and if possession 
of the field was yielded to the enemy, the fate of those who were made prisoners of war could only, if ever, be learned
through unreliable Confederate sources.
	For such heroes who died for their country and who sleep in nameless graves, their epitaph is inscribed in this 
history as “missing in action.”  A more honorable or heroic epitaph could not be penned.
           	It will thus be seen that the same difficulties encountered in the compilation of this work existed elsewhere.  
In fact, the same condition prevailed in all the states, and it may be safely assumed that the record of personal service 
of Iowa soldiers recorded in these volumes is as nearly correct and complete as that published by any other state.  
The total enrollment together with the Summary of Casualties which follows the roster of each regiment, has been 
carefully compiled from the records, and demonstrates more clearly than language could describe the tremendous 
sacrifice of life, and the untold suffering endured by these brave sons of Iowa.  The State has honored itself in thus 
endeavoring to do justice to their memory.