A Proud German Soldier

John Hormel, a native of the “Kingdom of Germany”, enlisted on August 9, 1862 and became a member of Company G of the 22^nd Iowa Infantry. The 21 year-old worked as a blacksmith and stood five feet six and a half inches tall with black eyes and black hair; he was discharged in June 1865 from Company K of the 5^th Regiment of the Veteran Reserve Corps. On his discharge papers, he proudly and carefully used red ink to write “In Battles of Port Gibson, Champion Hills, Black River Bridge, and Seige of Vicksburg Where he was wounded.” The 22^nd Iowa Infantry played the key role in the assault on the Railroad Redoubt on May 22, 1863 and suffered losses of 27 killed, 118 wounded, and 19 missing or captured. The sturdy trans-Mississippians went on to serve in the 1864 Shenandoah Valley campaign, but the assault at Vicksburg was their most memorable fight. For a recounting of the assault see Jeffry C. Burden's "Into the Breach: The 22nd Iowa Infantry at the Railroad Redoubt" in Civil War Regiments: A Journal Of The America Civil War (volume 2, #1, pages 19-35).

Finally: A Completed Manuscript

The last five weeks have been hectic and stressful leaving little time for blogging. A close relative has experienced serious health problems with the bulk of that responsibility falling on me. In better news, my manuscript A Constant School of Excitement: Albert C. Ellithorpe and the Civil War on the Frontier is at a publisher and being considered for publication. Ellithorpe, as I’ve mentioned in previous postings, served as an officer in the First Indian Home Guards, a tri-racial regiment that served exclusively in Arkansas, the Indian Territory, and Missouri. Major Ellithorpe led an adventurous life, and his colorful personality is evident in his journal, his twenty-three Chicago Evening Journal articles, and various other documents. It’s been a fun project, but I was happy to send the 297-page manuscript on to a potential publisher.