Company H History
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History of Buchanan County, Iowa 1842 to 1881, pages 123-124
Transcribed by Tommy Joe Fulton and Peggy Hoehne

The following historical sketch from the Bulletin will be found interesting and will explain itself:

SKETCH OF COMPANY H, TWENTY-SEVENTH IOWA.

QUASQUETON, August 14, 1865.

MR. EDITOR: - In answer to your favor of the eleventh instant, desiring a complete history of company H, Twenty-seventh Iowa infantry, I reply that my time is so occupied that I cannot furnish you with a full history of the company, but I will give you a brief sketch which you are welcome to do with as you please.

Company H, Twenty-seventh Iowa infantry, was organized on the twenty-seventh of August, 1862, and mustered into the United States service on the twenty-ninth of the same month, at Dubuque, Iowa. [The list of officers is omitted here, being already given in the roster of the company, taken from the adjutant general's report. - E. P.]

The company was mustered out at Clinton, Iowa, on the eighth day of August, 1865. numbering, all told, forty-two. The term of service was twenty-one days less than three years.

The company has been in fifteen engagements, in which but one man, Charles Canton, was killed and seventeen wounded. Corporal Low, and Edward E. Mulick, color bearers, were severely wounded at Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, April 9, 1864, and fell into the hands of the rebels. John Buck, died at Moscow, Tennessee, July 22, 1863, from an accidental gunshot wound received while on picket duty. Twelve died from disease, as follows: Joseph H. Black died in convalescent hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, December 4, 1864; two days thereafter his discharge papers were received; Charles Coleman died at Independence, Iowa, October 14, 1862; Isaac Gill died at Brownsville, Arkansas, September 8, 1864; Jacob Glass died at Jackson, Tennessee, February 15, 1863; George Hathaway died at Holly Springs, Mississippi; Walter B. Lanfeer died at Cairo, Illinois, December 8, 1863; John McBain died at Mound City, Illinois, December 9, 1862; Joseph Moore died at Jackson, Tennessee, March 14, 1863; Bartemas McGonigil died at Jackson, Tennessee, March 18, 1863; John Older died at Memphis, Tennessee, May 12, 1865; Benjamin Sutton died at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, October 28, 1862; John A. Tift died at Memphis, Tennessee, November 30, 1862.

There were forty discharged previous to the mustering out of the company. George G. Gaylord was discharged to enable him to accept a commission as lieutenant in a battery of heavy artillery. Our surgeon,Sylvander W. Bowker, was discharged at Jefferson Barracks September 24, 1864, and died two days thereafter while in the hospital. Four, Matthew Y. Brown, Jeremiah Irwin, Isaac T. Lee, and Christian Waller, the only drafted men in the regiment, were discharged in June, 1865, their term of service expiring September 30, 1865. The remainder were discharged for physical disability.

Thirty-two were transferred; thirteen of whom, being recruits, were transferred to the Twelfth Iowa Infantry. Two, Charles H. Lewis and Dr. H. H. Hunt, were transferred to the non-commissioned regiment staff, and were soon after discharged to enable the former to accept a commission of first lieutenant and adjutant, and the latter to accept a commission of assistant surgeon to the Twenty-first Iowa volunteer infantry.

The following is a list of officers, non-commissioned officers and privates who were finally mustered out of the service:

COMMISSIONED OFFICERS.

Captain O. Whitney.
First Lieutenant W. G. Donnan.
Second Lieutenant G. W. Smyzer.

NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS.

First Sergeant Charles W. Evans.
Sergeant James A. Laird.
Sergeant Daniel Andrews.
Sergeant Emanuel Miller.
Sergeant Henry E. A. Diehi.
Corporal Harrison H. Love.
Corporal William Morgan.
Wagoner Benjamin Miller.

PRIVATES.

William C. B. Adams, Samuel Beckley, John M. Blank, Hamilton B. Booth, Francis M. Congdon, Columbus Caldwell, William Casebeer, William Crum, James Campbell, Albert Cordell, Devolson Cornick, Moses Chase, Hamilton Evans, William B. Fleming, Michael Harrigan, Adam Hoover, Charles Hoover, jr., James C. Haskins, George Kirkham, William J. Hendrick, Charles W. McKinney, Alvi Megonigal, Edward E. Mulick, Augustus P. Osgood, Austin W. Perkins, William T. Rich, Philip C. Smyzer, Alonzo Shurtliff, Henry H. Turner, Joseph Tures, Myron H. Woodward.

The company has furnished eight commissioned officers - Jacob Miller, captain to April 9, 1863; O. Whitney, captain at the time the company was mustered out of the United States service; W. G. Donnan, first lieutenant; George W. Smyzer, second lieutenant; C. H. Lewis, adjutant; Dr. H. H. Hunt, assistant surgeon Twenty-first Iowa infantry; George G. Gaylord, lieutenant of artillery; and Lieutenant A. M. Wilcox, whose resignation was accepted to enable him to accept the commission of captain and commissary of subsistence of United States volunteers.

As near as I can estimate, from the data I have on hand, the company has travelled by steamboat over eight thousand miles, by railroad two thousand miles, and marched three thousand miles. The company, with the regiment, has visited the capitals of seven different States, and three times have built comfortable winter quarters without being permitted to occupy them, except for a few days. It has never been surprised on picket or whipped in battle; has burned a fair proportion of cotton; and its doings will compare favorably with any other company in the regiment, or among General A. J. Smith's guerillas, in the number of pigs, sheep, turkeys, and chickens it has, from military necessity, appropriated to personal use.

I am, very respectfully yours,
O. WHITNEY