Corporal Louis Sohl

In 1854 Louis Sohl participated in a significant migration of Germans to the heartland of America. Little did this twelve year old from Hessel Darmstadt suspect that before he reached the age of twenty, he would be risking his life to preserve the nation which had become his family's new home.

Louis served with such distinction that he ended the war as a noncommissioned officer, having been promoted first to Eighth Corporal, and then ending the war as Third Corporal in Company E.

Following the war, Louis returned to Iowa, where he became a very respected member of the Dubuque community. He was a prominent businessman, partner in a thriving sausage company.

An active member of the Grand Army of the Republic, members of his Hyde Clark Post provided full military honors at his funeral. One of the members of the party was his friend George Healey, the only member of the Fifth Iowa Cavalry to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.

This memorial to Louis Sohl's service is provided by his great-granddaughter, Sandra Seabold, who still makes her home in the beautiful state from which Louis' regiment took its name.