Title: John Scott Collection

Date/Date Range :   1862

Extent: .1 linear feet

Abstract:

In this letter, Scott discusses five men who were reported as deserters from Company I of the 3rd Iowa regiment. According to Scott, this report was unjustified because all of the men in question had been wounded and served valiantly.

Call number: MS-2133

Repository: University of Tennessee Special Collections Library, Knoxville, TN

Aquisition Information:

The Special Collections Library purchased this collection in March 2004.

Access Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Copyright:

The copyright interests in this collection remain with the creator. For more information, contact the Special Collections Library.

Preferred Citation:

[Identification of Item], John Scott Collection, MS-2133. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Special Collections Library.

Collection consists of a single folder.

John Scott was born in Ohio in approximately 1824. At the time of the 1860 Federal Census, Scott was living in Nevada, Iowa with his wife, Ade (possibly Ada), and three children: Ben (8 years old), Carrie (3 years old), and Rankin (4 months old). The family also employed a servant by the name of Catherine Carlson. John Scott was working as a lawyer at the time, and the family was quite well off.

Scott enlisted in Company E of the 3rd Iowa Infantry Regiment on May 21, 1861 and was commissioned as a Captain on June 8, 1861. He was quickly promoted, becoming a Lieutenant Colonel on June 26, 1861 and being reassigned to the 3rd Iowa Field & Staff on the same date. The 3rd Iowa served in Missouri until March of 1862, when they were ordered to Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee and later to Memphis, Tennessee, where they remained until September 6, 1862.

Scott was discharged from the 3rd Iowa for promotion on August 10, 1862. On August 22, 1862, he was commissioned into the Field and Staff of the 32nd Iowa Infantry Regiment as a Lieutenant Colonel. The regiment mustered in officially on October 6, 1862. This regiment served in Missouri and Arkansas until January 1864, when they moved to Memphis, Tennessee and then to Mississippi. They returned to Missouri in September of 1864 but quickly relocated to Nashville, Tennessee and then returned south for the pursuit of General John Bell Hood. They were then stationed in Alabama until mustering out on August 24, 1865.

According to Lieutenant Colonel John Scott, Colonel Nelson G. Williams of the 3rd Iowa Regiment reported Second Lt. Benton A. Mathews, Second Lieutenant Ole A. Anderson, Lieutenant Colonel Mathew M. Trumbull of Company D and Captain Emilius I. Weiser of Company I as deserters. He calls for an investigation so that these men, who had been wounded and served valiantly, should have their records corrected. His expression of outrage mirrors the injustice done.

• Soldiers -- Iowa -- Correspondence
• Tennessee -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Tennessee -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal Narratives.
• United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal Narratives.
• United States. Army. Iowa Infantry Regiment, Third Regiment (1861-1864)