Polk County IA Archives Obituaries.....MILLS, NOAH WEBSTER October 12, 1862
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 "AMERICAN PATRIOTISM" OR, MEMOIRS OF 'COMMON MEN.'" by LEONARD BROWN, 1869
COLONEL NOAH WEBSTER MILLS
“MY DARLING WIFE,- Feeling as though I could do so this morning, I write you a
few lines.
“The first day we were engaged in battle some time after your father [Gen.
Hackleman] was mortally wounded. He was on a different part of the field, and I
didn't know that he was wounded, till I heard he had been carried to the
Tishamingo House. Col. Baker was mortally wounded, I suppose, about the same
time, and I was left in command.
My wound I got the second day, while charging on the enemy. It is severe; will
take three months, surgeons say, to render my foot fit for use again. The first
day my horse was shot. A ball passed through the shoulder of my coat sleeve, and
a spent ball struck the foot that is now disabled.
"Major Weaver was in command after I was hurt. I stayed till I was in great
pain, and the brigade commander sent me from the field. 116 out of 320 of the
Second are killed and wounded and missing.
"I have good attention and am doing well."
Mills was taken with lock-jaw, caused by the severity of his wound, and no
relief could be obtained, though the best physicians were called, and his foot
amputated. He could not speak; but he wrote in his last moments:-
"I have been well attended; no one could foresee this. If it is to be fatal, it
is my time. God is wise and just. If the danger is great, I am not afraid to die.
"I have always intended to have my children well educated, and brought up to
business habits. I want them to be able to write and spell their own language
correctly. Good penmanship is a great aid to any one. I have found in the army
that the services of almost every soldier that could write well were in demand.
”In the army I have tried conscientiously and prayerfully to do my duty; and if
I am to die in my youth, I prefer to die as a soldier of my country. To do so as
a member of the 2d Iowa Infantry is glorious enough for me.
“I wish my boy to be temperate, and avoid profanity of all grades, and the use
of tobacco."
On the occasion of the funeral, Hon. John A. Kasson pronounced the oration, from
which the following is taken. It is a beautiful picture of the life and
character of Colonel Mills.
“No more upright or purer soul joined that army. He was only twenty-six years of
age. He had read for the profession of law in Indiana, and thence came to this
city, where his desire for that profession was abandoned in the more quiet
pursuits of business. Few persons knew how quietly and steadily he followed
literary studies. Fond of reading and composing, in his leisure hours he
cultivated tastes that improved and honored him. His character was so
unpretending, his life so void of worldly ambition, that the public had remained
ignorant of his essential worth and vigorous patriotism. After a brief space
given to reflection, he responded to the bugle-note sounded by the
commander-in-chief with the offer of his labor and his life for the salvation of
his government. He was made Second Lieutenant of the first company which this
county sent forth to the war. He was enrolled with the 2d Regiment of Iowa
Infantry, the first in Iowa which enlisted for the war. From that time to his
last hour he bore a gallant and distinguished part in all the victories of that
glorious battalion. Rising rapidly grade by grade, gaining each bar and both oak
leaves by merit. On the day of his last battle, he found himself in command of
one of the most distinguished regiments in the United States service, and
entitled to place the silver eagle on his shoulders. Cool, collected, fearless
in the rage of battle, unseduced by pleasure, unshaken by danger, unterrified in
the deathstorm, he was a model officer, a Bayard among the volunteers.  As I
recall his manly form, his serene countenance, his Christian eye, I can
understand why no rebel bullet could do more than rend his garments, and why it
should be left to a chance ball to tear his foot, and ultimately destroy his
life. As a traitor looked into his kindly face, he reproached himself as a
murderer, at the thought of robbing mankind of such a model of upright manhood.
In the brilliant and daring assault by his regiment at Donelson, which won us
the first great victory of the war, he escaped almost unscathed. In the terrible
scenes at Shiloh, his escape was equally miraculous. In the battle of Corinth 
he seemed equally the favorite of some beneficent angel, until the contest was
nearly over, and the eagle of victory was about descending upon our banners,
when an ill-aimed bullet came crushing lengthwise through his foot. His
regiment, having lost its brave Colonel early on the preceding day, was now
under his command. General Rosecrans, knowing the importance of their position,
had come near to them, doubting even the bravest of the brave amidst the
overwhelming terror of that conflict, and stood himself exposed to the deadly
storm of missiles, in order to stimulate the 2d Regiment by his presence.
Lieutenant Colonel Mills rode to him and begged him to retire from this danger,
that he might be saved for the army, and told him he would stand responsible for
the behavior of his veteran regiment. When his lines wavered under the reckless
pressure of the enemy, he seized the colors from the guard, and held them aloft
from his horse, and rallied his thinned and exhausted ranks to renewed deeds of
valor. It was then he received his mortal wound. Painful as it was, through all
that wonderful net-work which the bullet had crushed in its course, he kept the
saddle. His Brigadier, General Sweeney, rode up to him, and urged him to retire,
with the words so grateful to a soldier: ‘Colonel, your conduct has been
admirable, sir-admirable!' And as the enemy fled before our pursuing battalions,
our wounded Colonel yielded to his wound, and retired. Victory had crowned the
Union banners. His undaunted regiment had won new thanks from a brave chief, and
new laurels from a grateful country. They had inscribed a fresh page of glory in
the history of this State. They and their comrades in that fight had furnished a
glowing chapter to the future historian of this national war. And in the midst
of these glorious results, it pleased God to take to himself our chivalrous
soldier. Near the close of his career he said: “I have tried to do my duty; I am
not afraid to die.' With this language from his General, and from himself, - fit
memorial words for his monument, - let us give him honorable burial, and
consecrate his memory in our grateful hearts."
Mills says, in one of his letters to Mrs. M., dated Camp Montgomery, Ala., Aug.
9, 1862:
"Life and this world seem valuable to me only because of you and my children. I
was saying to Ensign that I didn't want to die, till you and I and our babies
could live in our own nice little home in Des Moines, and feel that perfect
happiness we should feel when first experiencing the fact. . . . . I think next
summer will find us safe and happy in Des Moines, the best place in America,
better prepared than ever to be happy and good."
He is buried in the cemetery at Des Moines, and a beautiful monument has been
erected to his memory by his affectionate wife. He died on Sunday evening, at
sundown,  on the 12th day of October, 1862, in hospital at Corinth, Miss.
Upon the monument is inscribed:
COLONEL  N. W.  MILLS:
DIED OCTOBER 12,1861,
FROM WOUNDS RECEIVED IN BATTLE OF CORINTH, 
OCTOBER 4TH,
AGED 28 YEARS, 8 MONTHS, 21 DAYS.
'I have tried to do my duty: I'm not afraid to die.'




Additional Comments:
This is taken from "AMERICAN PATRIOTISM" OR, MEMOIRS OF 'COMMON MEN.'" by
LEONARD BROWN, published by Redhead & Wellslager, 41 Court Ave.Des Moines,IA. 1869.
This book contains remembrances of fallen soldiers from Polk County during the
Civil War. This includes some genealogical material as well.

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