BIOGRAPHY: Peters, John H.
From the A.T. Andreas Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, 1875

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Colonel JOHN H. PETERS. – Like most of the enterprising and successful men who, 
by their nevertiring industry and thrift, have transformed the wild beauties of the western 
prairies and forests into the most wealthy and attractive portion of our country, the 
subject of this sketch was born and reared amid the barren rocks and dashing streams of 
New England.  His natal day was the 2nd of February, 1829; and his birthplace Litchfield 
County, Connecticut.  His early education was received at the district school and 
academy of his native village, and completed at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, 
where he also received the rudiments of a military education, which proved of great 
service to him in after life.  Soon after leaving college he entered the office of Hon. 
Truman Smith, since United States senator from that state, where he remained as a law 
student until 1852, when he removed to Freeport, Illinois, and was soon after admitted to 
practice in the Supreme Court of that state at Springfield, by examination.  After 
remaining here about one year, he removed to Delhi, the county seat of Delaware County, 
Iowa, and immediately commenced the practice of his profession, showing marked 
ability and energy, and, although a young man, soon took a prominent position among the 
leading members of the bar of Northern Iowa.  Such was his reputation as a clear thinker 
and able lawyer, both at home and abroad, that in 1856, when only twenty-seven years of 
age, he was elected to the responsible position of delegate to the Constitutional 
Convention, and took an active part in framing the present Constitution of the State of 
Iowa.

In August, 1861, when the late War of the Rebellion had assumed such gigantic 
proportions as to awaken in the breast of every loyal man a desire to aid our country in its 
hour of peril, he raised a company in Delaware County, and with it joined his fortunes 
with the 4th Iowa Cavalry.  Here his early military education proved of great value, as 
being well versed in the tactics of this branch of the service, he immediately went to work 
with his usual intense energy, training and drilling the sturdy farmer boys who composed 
the regiment, into soldiers.  He refused to have his men mustered into the state service; 
and plainly informed all who seemed to hesitate, that if they desired to return home and 
withstand the taunt and jeers of their neighbors and friends, they were at liberty to do so.  
Quite a number took advantage of the proposition, and the result was that Captain Peters 
soon commanded one of the finest and best drilled companies of cavalry that entered our 
army from the Northwest.

As a brilliant, dashing and successful cavalry officer, Colonel Peters had few if any 
superiors in the Western army, and successfully led many a perilous expedition which, 
though necessary, required an officer possessing cool judgment, bravery and indomitable 
pluck to execute.  A universal favorite among his associates and companions in arms, he 
was nevertheless often considered reckless and foolhardy, although he never failed to 
prove by his oft-repeated successes that he was led by judgment rather than impulse.  
Such was his popularity with the soldiers of the command, that he could always secure 
more volunteers than he wished to accompany him on any extra hazardous expedition, no 
matter how dangerous or hopeless it might seem.

Among the numerous incidents of the war which deserve a place in the history of our 
nation, and in which Colonel Peters took an active part, is the following:

The Federal lines, under command of General U. S. Grant, were thrown around the rear 
of Vicksburg on the 18th day of May, 1863, and on that evening he found himself in 
command of about sixty thousand men, - in reality cut off from supplies, and his rations 
almost exhausted.  The fortification of Haines' and Snyder's Bluffs on the Yazoo River 
effectually cut off all communication between the right flank and the supply boats on the 
Mississippi, consequently the only way remaining to secure supplies must be by land 
transportation for some nine miles on the Louisiana side of the river, then transferring 
across to the left flank, near Warrington, where General Price and hi army occupied a 
position on the west side of the river, rendering this land transportation exceedingly 
difficult and altogether impracticable.  On the evening of the 18th of May, General Grant 
held a consultation with his officers, and determined to send the cavalry to reconnoiter in 
the direction of Haines' and Snyder's Bluffs, and if possible open communication with 
the gunboats on the Yazoo River.  The 4th Iowa, being the only full regiment of cavalry in 
the command, was ordered on this expedition, and started early on the morning of the 
19th, but moved very slowly, as they were constantly picking up the foot-sore and 
disabled soldiers of the rebel army that had escaped from the battle fields of Champion 
Hill and Black River Bridges; and by two o'clock P.M. they had only made about twelve 
miles, reaching a point where the Brownsville road crossed the one on which the column 
was marching.  The reports received from captured soldiers and Negroes, placed a 
command of some four thousand rebels a short distance up the Brownsville road, and 
estimated the garrison at Snyder's Bluff as four thousand more, which would make it 
extremely hazardous for a small command to cross the Brownsville road.  At this juncture 
Colonel Swan, commanding the regiment, hastily called a consultation of officers, and 
after fully discussing the situation, it was unanimously voted to return.  Seeing the 
regiment reversed and marching back was the first intimation Captain Peters received of 
the determination to return, as he had been momentarily absent from the command.  He 
immediately hastened to Colonel Swan, and endeavored to dissuade him, justly arguing 
that they could not return and make a satisfactory report, without at lest attempting to 
execute the instructions.  Finding he could not change the colonel's determination, he 
offered, and persistently urged, to be allowed to take his old company and make an 
attempt to look into the Rebel fortifications.  His offer was at first refused, and the 
proposition looked upon as wildly desperate and reckless; but after moving back for a 
mile or two the colonel finally consented, agreeing to throw his regiment into line, await 
his return, and render what assistance the occasion might require.  Captain Peters then 
rode to Company "B" and called for volunteers, when the whole company, to a man, 
turned out.  He then made his selections, taking only such horses as in his judgment 
would carry their riders ten miles at a fast gait, and found but twenty-three men, his two 
lieutenants and Lieutenant S. P. Kelly, of Company "A", who volunteered to take his 
place in the ranks and accompany the expedition.  They started at the gallop, and in 
twenty minutes came upon a convalescent camp, containing some two or three hundred 
Rebel soldiers.  The surrender and acceptance of this force was made without halting the 
column.  They next surprised and captured an Irishman, in citizen's dress and well 
mounted.  The captain charged him with being a Rebel soldier and belonging to the 
fortifications, and offered him his liberty and a free pass to St. Louis if he would conduct 
him into the fortifications by a route that would avoid the Rebel pickets.  This proposition 
was accepted, and as the column had all the time been riding at a fast gallop they were 
soon at the foot of Snyder's Bluff.  The guide here pointed out a by-path, through the 
brush and timber, capable of the passage of troops in single file.  Entering this path, the 
guide taking the lead, the party soon arrived at the top of the bluff, and came out upon a 
broad military road leading into the fortifications.  Here the guide claimed his reward, 
and was placed in the rear, under guard.  As the men came out upon the road they formed 
in a column of fours, and at a sharp gallop turned the corner leading into the 
fortifications, sloping from their feet gradually down to the Yazoo River.  The guard left 
by the evacuating Rebels endeavored hastily to form a line across the road, but the 
column of cavalry swung into platoons, charged down upon them so suddenly that not a 
single shot was fired, and in an instant threw down their arms and surrendered.  The 
cavalrymen were immediately dismounted and dispersed in every direction, in squads of 
threes and fours, so that in less than thirty minutes the whole rear guard of evacuating 
Rebel forces were moving, disarmed, towards the landing on the Yazoo River.  An 
unsuccessful attempt was then made to signal the gunboat "De Kalb," lying some four 
miles down the river.  After a few moments, Captain Peters ordered Lieutenant Clark and 
two men to go down the river and communicate with the gunboat, and, directing 
Lieutenant Parsons to look after the prisoners, he took three men and started for Haines's 
Bluff, situated some three miles up the river.  Here he found no troops, and after counting 
the guns and making general observations until dark, he returned to the landing at 
Snyder's Bluff.  The gunboat De Kalb had arrived, the prisoners were received on board, 
the cavalrymen were eating their supper, the first "square meal" for fourteen days.  
Against his desire and protestation, Captain Peters was taken from the saddle and carried 
to the officer's deck, where a sumptuous repast was awaiting.  After eating supper – in 
regular gunboat style – and directing an orderly boat to communicate the capture to the 
transports on the Mississippi, he and his men remounted and started back to join their 
command.  The rode rapidly until reaching the place where they had left the regiment a 
few hours before, but found it gone.  They then took the walk, and moving back arrived 
at two o'clock A.M. at the camp they had left the previous morning.  Here he learned that 
Colonel Swan had reported to General Grant the failure of his expedition, and that 
Captain Peters and his small command had been either killed or captured.  He 
immediately mounted a fresh horse, rode to General Grant's head-quarters, and, calling 
the general up, reported the true state of things, and by daylight in the morning the mule-
teams were bringing army stores from the Chickasaw bayou to feed the sixty thousand 
hungry soldiers.

Judge of the surprise of Captain Peters and those engaged with him on this expedition, to 
read, a week or ten days later, in the St. Louis Democrat, the report of Rear-Admiral 
Porter, occupying several columns of that paper, in describing the capture of Haines' and 
Snyder's Bluffs by the "Mississippi flotilla, under Acting Rear-Admiral Porter."  This 
unjust claim of Admiral Porter has since caused considerable ill feeling on the part of 
General Grant and other officers, as well as to call forth many severe criticisms through 
the press.

Immediately after the siege of Vicksburg, the Governor of Iowa promoted Captain Peters 
to the rank of mayor; but as he had already been acting in that capacity, and a higher one, 
most of the time since his enlistment, and as the Governor had, on account of his 
democratic proclivities, previously prevented his promotion when urged by nearly every 
officer and man in the regiment, and by a large delegation of friends at home, - he refused 
to accept, and returned the commission to the Governor.  He was subsequently 
commissioned lieutenant-colonel, which he also at first refused, but finally yielding to the 
wishes of his friends, was mustered in that rank in October, 1863.  He was engaged in the 
battles of Jackson, Canton, Cold Water, Lupelo, Old Town Creek, and many other minor 
engagements, rendering valuable service to his country.  In the first Sturgis expedition 
from Memphis, in may, 1864, he led his brigade in advance during nearly the whole 
expedition, and with it alone drove General Price's forces from Bolivar, before General 
Sturgis knew that his advance was engaged.  With his regiment alone he gained a signal 
victory over the entire brigade of Rebels near Montebello, Georgia, on the 31st day of 
march, 1865, and on the following day took part in the battle of Ebenezer Church, and the 
next day led the charging column into the City of Selma, Alabama.  He participated in the 
conference held over the surrender of the City of Montgomery, and took a prominent part 
in the capture of Columbus, Georgia, which battle was fought on the evening of the 16th 
day of April, 1865, and was the last engagement of the war.

Soon after peace was restored Colonel Peters removed to Memphis, Tennessee, where he 
entered the practice of his profession, and in a short space of time secured a very large 
and lucrative practice, but owing to the entire failure of his health he was compelled to 
abandon it and return to Delhi, where he soon recovered both health and practice, and 
still enjoys a large business and the reputation of being one of the best lawyers in the 
district.  He is a public-spirited man, always ready to assist with time and money any 
enterprise of which he may be said to be the gather, as its successful completion is due 
more to his energy, judgment and perseverance than to any other one cause.