Private Nicholas Pettinger

Nicholas Pettinger listed Germany as his home when enlisting in Company E of the Fifth Iowa in September of 1861. Evidence on the internet suggests that he may have more precisely immigrated to the United States from Luxemburg.

Pettinger served in the same company for the duration of the war, mustering out with the rest of the regiment on August 11, 1865 at Nashville, Tennessee. A resident of Dubuque, he returned to his home state where he presumably lived the remainder of his life. Today a tombstone in the Blairsburg Cemetery in Hamilton County, Iowa marks the final resting place of this veteran who proved his love for his adopted homeland by risking his life during the most critical period of its history.