Corporal Abraham Deeter

Tintype taken in Corinth, Mississippi in October 1862

Abraham Deeter enlisted in the Fifth Iowa Infantry at the age of 17 from Marshall County, Iowa in July 1861. During his service with that distinguished regiment, he participated in the battles of Iuka, Corinth, Champion's Hill and the siege of Vicksburg. Abraham suffered a minor wound from a nearly spent ball at the battle of Iuka, 19 September 1862. He was hospitalized on two occasions for illness and was fortunate to have survived these battles with disease--which claimed more soldier's lives during the war than did actual combat.

Upon the expiration of the enlistments of a majority of its soldiers, the Fifth Iowa Infantry regiment was disbanded in August 1864. Those members of the regiment who had re-enlisted were transferred to the Fifth Iowa Cavalry as companies G and I, replacing two of the three companies which had been detached earlier in the year to form Brackett's Minnesota Battalion.

Abraham was transferred to the Fifth Iowa Cavalry as a Corporal on 1 September 1864. He served with the regiment through the remainder of the war, including the battles of Nashville, Selma, and Columbus. On 7 April 1865, he was detailed to the brigade staff (Brigadier General A.J. Alexander, Second Brigade, 4th Cavalry Division, Wilson's Cavalry Corps) as Corporal of Orderlies. Abraham was mustered out of Federal service on 11 August 1865 in Nashville, Tennessee and discharged at Clinton, Iowa on 17 August 1865; one day short of his twenty-first birthday.

After the war Abraham lived in Winterset, Iowa for a number of years, eventually moving to the new town of Lamar in southeastern Colorado (founded 1886). He was a farmer and had been in the restaurant and hotel business. He was very civic-minded and held numerous local offices in the communities in which he lived. While in Winterset, Iowa, he was Deputy Sheriff, Constable, and City Marshall. In Lamar, Colorado, he was City Assessor, the first City Treasurer, the first Coroner, President of the School Board, Councilman, Police Judge, and long-time Justice of the Peace (27 years). He was the last living member of Lamar's Kit Carson Post #59, G.A.R., when he died in July 1929.

This memorial to Abraham Deeter's service to his country is provided by his grateful great-grandson, Keith Young, who is himself retired after a career in the United States Navy.