From Confederate POW to Officer in Spanish-American War
Returning to Davenport, Iowa, after the war, Spier Whitaker Jr. remembered his teenage friendships and the path that led to his freedom. Spier Whitaker Jr. was born in 1841 in…
You can’t outrun the long arm of the law
Governments on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line had an insatiable desire for military recruits. Pennsylvania native Samuel H. Bulger found this out during the Civil War. Samuel had moved…
The Devil’s in the details (and the fun is, too): Books about Copperheads and the Confederacy
Confederates from Iowa had a rich variety of wartime experiences. To help me flesh out their stories, I’ve studied the war from a Confederate perspective. The following books are insightful…
Son of Former Iowa Governor goes bad, Part 2: The Family tries to Intervene
Junius L. Hempstead and 600 other Confederate officers crowded into the dark hold of a Federal steamer. Sea-sickness and lack of sanitation bedeviled them for two weeks. They arrived at Morris…