The Legacy of a Union Soldier
Discover a Union Soldier's journey in vivid detail.
A Union Soldier
My great grandfather volunteered on the Union side, the North, in the 3rd Iowa Infantry. His service and my familial connection had prompted me to develop this website. Sergeant Newlon chronicles his Civil War experiences from April 1861 to August 1863 in two journals he carried with him.
On 28 May 1861, Indianola, Iowa, the twenty-four-year-old Will Newlon from Winterset, Iowa, enlisted into a small group of volunteers called the "Union Zouaves of Winterset". Will was mustered into Company G, 3d Infantry Regiment, Iowa Volunteers, as a private. On 8 June 1861 at Keokuk, Iowa, he writes:
"Today we were sworn into United States service for three years; I felt the present occasion."
Will describes the Third's movements through Missouri and Tennessee. All the while, Will pens the tedium and daily struggle of a Civil War soldier, the marching, drilling and dress parades, the cooking and camp making, the cold and heat, the fighting, and the loneliness.
The first journal, the smaller one, begins with his enlistment & muster in May '61, basic training in Keokuk, Iowa, and ends at Benton Barracks, St Louis, September 1862 to await orders to go south into Tennessee.
A Journal Excerpt On The Battle Of Blue Mills Landing, Liberty, Missouri, 17 September 1861:
"...We had but marched over half a mile when we suddenly came upon the enemy in a heavy body of timber lying in ambush with strong fortifications. We were close upon them before we knew they were there. Bullets as thick as hail, they opened a fire upon us with three cannons and small arms. They had their cannons planted so as to command the road where our column was marching. On our right was an open marsh; on our left was a heavy body of timber. Here we were, in this position, no chance to flank them, for they were on our right and on our left. We turned our cannons upon them as they were flanking. The first shot mowed them down like a hurricane. Our artillerymen only succeeded in giving them three shots with the cannon when they were all killed and wounded but three, and that silenced the gun. During this time, we kept up a volley of musketry..."
The Second Journal, the Ledger Book, Begins Where the Smaller One Ended, Benton Barracks, St. Louis, February 1862.
On The Battle Of Shiloh, TN (4/6/1862):
"...About 11 o'clock P.M. the City Guards of New Orleans, 17th Louisiana, charged in an open field upon our regiment. We remained lying in perfect silence until they approached within 150 yards of our line. When we opened upon them with a volley of musketry, it appeared to me as though half of them fell the first fire, and it was but a moment when there was none to be seen on the field but the dead and dying. The ground was literally covered with bodies. In many places they were lying one upon the other, but few of them escaped with their lives. Such a sight I never before witnessed and may God grant another such may never be fought on this continent by a civilized and enlightened people, is my prayer..."
On 5 October 1862, Will was severely wounded at the Battle of Davis Bridge near Pocahontas, Tennessee. His writings conclude in August 1863 from the Army Hospital in Jackson, Tennessee, where he was recovering from a leg amputation. Meanwhile, 3rd Sergeant Newlon received his medical discharge papers on 7 April 1863.
Will returned to Winterset, Iowa, where he married his sweetheart, Lydia Ann Philbrick. Together they raised a large family, nine of whom survived to adulthood. Among them was Mary, their middle child, and my grandmother. In 1912, she married Army First Lieutenant Clarence Roy Green, who later died in the First World War. Will enjoyed a long and prosperous career as a community leader and land agent. He passed away—likely from heart failure—while driving his buggy home on 25 June 1902.
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Civil War Photos
www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/battle-of-shiloh
Shiloh's Confederate Memorial and Grave-site. Of 45,000 Confederates engaged, there were more than 10,000 casualties.
The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the American Civil War fought on April 6–7, 1862. The fighting took place in southwestern Tennessee, which was part of the war's Western Theater. The battlefield is located between a small, undistinguished church named Shiloh and Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River.
www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/battle-of-shiloh
Shiloh's Eternal Flame
More than 13,000 of Grant’s and Buell’s approximately 62,000 troops were killed, wounded, captured or missing.
Shiloh Breastworks protecting gun placements. A snake fence and rocks will slow down or divert an assault.
