Iowa: Its History and Its Foremost Citizens
Revised, Home and School Edition by Brigham Johnson.
2 Vols. Des Moines,
IA: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1918.
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Unless otherwise noted, biographies submitted by Tamara Jorstad.
Charles Leopold Matthies, First To Tender His Services To The Union Cause in
1861
Though not a native-born American, Charles Leopold Matthies was one of the
first -- if not the first -- to tender his services to Governor Kirkwood. It
will be remembered that on the 9th of January, 1961, long before the
war was declared, he foresaw the inevitableness of war and tendered his entire
militia company to the service of the state and nation -- the first tender of
the sort made by any citizen of the North. A native of Prussia, a graduate of
the University of Halle, and a soldier in the Prussian army, in 1849, at the age
of twenty-five, he migrated to Burlington, Iowa, where he engaged in
merchandising. He was captain of Company D, First Iowa Volunteers, and after
Wilson's Creek, July 15, 1861, he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the Fifth
Iowa. Following the death of Colonel Worthington, on the 23d of May, 1862, he
was made colonel. In the victory at Iuka, his regiment lost over two hundred
men. On the 29th of November, 1862, Colonel Matthies was made a
brigadier-general, for gallant services in many battles.
Quotation should be made from a personal letter from Major-General Hamilton,
after the battle of Iuka. "Though still sick," writes the general,
"my heart thrilled with pride and satisfaction at the splendid conduct of
the regiments composing my old division, especially that of the Fifth Iowa and
the Twenty-sixth Missouri." And then he tells Colonel Matthies a pleasing
story of his own four-year-old boy who, breakfasting "in his
knapsack," was asked what regiment he belonged to, the boy promptly
responded: "Fifth Iowa -- papa's regiment."
Referring to Iuka, the Roster of Iowa Soldiers (Vol. I, p. 678) pronounces
that battle "one of the most fiercely contested of the entire war,"
and indirectly gives the colonel of the Fifth Iowa high praise by declaring that
"here was an Iowa regiment that could be depended upon to do its whole duty
in battle."
Aspen Grove Cemetery, Burlington, includes a beautiful monument marking the
last resting place of General Matthies, and the people of Burlington are wont to
point with pride to the shaft as commemorating the heroic career of the first
man in Iowa -- and in the country as well -- to tender his services to the cause
of the Union -- and he an adopted citizen of the United States! Well says the
Hawkeye of November 4, 1900: "The cold marble rebukes with burning
eloquence those narrow-minded men who would cast a slur upon the citizen of
foreign birth."
Thomas Jefferson McKean, West Pointer and Civil Engineer
Another soldier by profession was Thomas Jefferson McKean, born in Burlington , Pa. , August 21, 1810 . He was graduated from the Military Academy in 1831 and was assigned to the Fourth Infantry. In 1834 he resigned to engage in engineering. He became engineer-in-chief of the "Ramshorn" railroad, between Keokuk and Dubuque . During the Florida war he served as adjutant of the First Pennsylvania Volunteers. He served in the Mexican war as a private and was wounded at Cherubusco. Brevetted second-lieutenant, he resigned and returned to engineering. He became paymaster in the regular army in 1861, and in November of that year was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers. He served in the Mississippi campaign in the spring of 1862 and participated in the battle of Corinth . In 1863 he commanded the northeast district of Missouri. In 1864 he was in command in Kansas , on the Gulf and in Western Florida . He was brevetted major-general in March, 1865, and in August of that year was mustered out. He then engaged in farming near Marion , Iowa . In 1868 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention. In 1869 he declined a pension agency tendered him by President Grant. He died in Marion , April 19, 1870 .
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