Iowa’s Distinguished Civil War Veterans Featured in Marion Exhibit

MARION - Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Charles A. Clark became an attorney in Cedar Rapids after the Civil War and is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery.

Rebecca Otis (left) of Manchester was known as "Aunt Becky" for tending to thousands of sick and injured soldiers at Jefferson Barracks, a hospital in St. Louis.

Andrew Ford, of African-American descent, survived battles as a member of the United States Colored Troops to help found the Bethel AME Church in Cedar Rapids.

These are just three of more than 300 Iowans who served with distinction in the Civil War as noted in a new exhibit at the Marion Heritage Center titled "More than Any: Iowa in the Civil War." Iowa produced 65 generals and at least 24 Medal of Honor winners in the war, says exhibit curator David Wendell of Marion.

The exhibit will be unveiled at 5 p.m. Thursday with Civil War re-enactors, members of the American Legion and Marion Mayor Allen "Snooks" Bouska. It is the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Pea Ridge, Ark., the first major engagement for Iowa troops.

"I can't think of a moment in my history when I wasn't interested in history," says David, 43.

This goes back to the family farm in Nebraska where he'd hear stories from his ancestors.

A Linn-Mar High School graduate, David wound up in Chicago for a dozen years. He operated his own living history museum which concentrated on the Civil War and received national TV coverage when it re-enacted Abraham Lincoln's funeral on the 130th anniversary in 1995.

After being a tour guide at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., David returned to Marion a year ago to care for his father, Kenneth, who died two months later. Deciding to remain in Marion, David toured the state to gather information about its Civil War connections.

He visited graveyards, often leaving flowers or flags. He located old houses where Civil War veterans had lived. He explored the dusty storage rooms of libraries and history centers to dig through old books.

"My original intent was to make sure these men and women were remembered," David says. "I discovered, in 150 years, there's never been a comprehensive guide to Iowa in the Civil War."

David's discoveries, which could become a book, led to his exhibit. He learned some fascinating tales about Iowa's famous and not so famous Civil War veterans.

Clark, for instance, was from Maine. He took over when his commander was killed, leading the Union to victory at Brooks Ford, Va. David doesn't know why he later came to Cedar Rapids.

Otis, the Manchester nurse, had gone to St. Louis with her husband, John. Deemed too old to join his three sons to enlist, he helped at the hospital. When he became ill, "Aunt Becky" stepped forward. She is buried in Manchester with a military headstone.

And Ford, who has a government marker at Oak Hill in Cedar Rapids, came from Mount Vernon, Va., where President George Washington reportedly fathered Weseley Ford with a slave. David speculates that Andrew Ford could be a descendant of Weseley who is buried in the Washington family crypt.

The bottom line is that Andrew Ford served with the United States Colored Troops who were put onto the front lines for, as David says, "cannon fodder." But they were fighting for their rights, he says, and proud to show what they could do, as Andrew Ford continued to show after the war.