| Sergeant, Co C, 37th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, "Graybeard Regiment", US Army. Enlisted on 20 Oct 1862, discharged 24 May 1865. In the fall of 1864, while escorting Confederate prisoners from Cincinnati to St. Louis, his ankle was dislocated in a railroad accident near Seymour, Indiana. He was promoted to Full 6th Corporal on July 29, 1863, and Full 5th Corporal on March 23, 1864, then mustered out on May 24, 1865, as a sergeant. |
- Isaac was by all appearances the second son of John Mendenhall and Margaret Gonce, with whom he lived in Alabama and East Tennessee during the 1820s and 30s. On July 3, 1834, in McMinn County, Tennessee, he married Elizabeth Atkisson, whose brother James had married Isaac's sister Margaret around 1828. It is, however, possible that Isaac was John Mendenhall's nephew, not his son, and therefore Margaret's cousin, not her brother. Some family trees have listed him as a nephew, and there is a December 7, 1835, McMinn County court order appointing James Atkisson as Isaac's guardian. James at that time would have been 23 and Isaac 20, still legally a minor. The reasons for the guardianship are not specified in the court record, but it's possible that John Mendenhall had previously served as Isaac's legal guardian and that he was already planning a move north, in which case he may have deemed it wise for Isaac to have a guardian in his absence. Both John and Isaac owned land in McMinn County, according to 1836 county tax records, and the planned sale of those lands may have factored into the guardianship. By 1839, all three families had moved to Jefferson County, Illinois, where Isaac bought some land. Around 1849 he and Elizabeth, along with James and Margaret, moved their families to Iowa, where they lived about six miles apart in 1850, and next door to each other in 1854, in Lee County. In 1856 the Atkissons moved to Corydon, while Isaac and Elizabeth settled their family in Van Buren County. During the second year of the Civil War, on October 20, 1862, Isaac enlisted at the age of 47 and mustered in Company C, 37th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, nicknamed the "Graybeard Regiment" because of the many older men serving in its ranks. In the fall of 1864, while escorting Confederate prisoners from Cincinnati to St. Louis, his ankle was dislocated in a railroad accident near Seymour, Indiana. He was promoted to Full 6th Corporal on July 29, 1863, and Full 5th Corporal on March 23, 1864, then mustered out on May 24, 1865, as a sergeant. He applied for a pension in 1886, due to the chronic pain from his ankle injury, and began receiving $12 a month in 1890, after his wife Elizabeth had already passed away.
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1815 - 1901 (86 years)
