Private Andrew Soll

The military career of Andrew Soll was unique among his compatriots in the Fifth Iowa Infantry. He enrolled in Company K of the Fifth, and later was wounded at Iuka, Mississippi, in a way that inhibited his continuing service in the infantry. As a result, he was allowed to transfer to the Mississippi Marine Brigade.

In 1844, along with his brother John, left Germany. They originally settled in New York City. They moved to Lansing Iowa in 1853. Andrew was listed in the 1860 census in Lansing as a fireman.

Andrew's brothers John and Joseph would eventually the Soll name to Zoll. Andrew, however, enlisted into the army from Lansing in July 1861 under his anglicized name of "Soll."

In September of 1862, Soll was wounded in the battle at Iuka. He recuperated in the hospital at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. Actually, Soll suffered from two injuries, having received a rifle ball in left leg between the knee and ankle and another shot in his left thigh. Soll was not the only casualty. Of the 482 men of the Fifth Iowa who entered into this battle, seven commissioned officers were killed, and eight were wounded. Enlisted men suffered thirty-four deaths and 168 wounded.

In the Fall, Soll was transferred to the hospital at Keokuk, Iowa. In the winter, he the musters report him as in the hospital in Quincy, Illinois. In April of 1863, he is curiously listed as being once again in the hospital in Keokuk.

His wounds apparently did not heal to the point where he could return to the Fifth. In 1863 the muster remarks that Soll was "discharged to enlist in Marine Brigade."

For his enlistment in Company D of the First Infantry Mississippi Marine Brigade in February of 1863, Soll listed his occupation as farmer. He declared he was born in Germany and 26 years old. He had gray eyes, dark hair, and a dark complexion and was 5'4" tall.

Commodore Davis Dixon Porter formed a Mississippi River Brigade in October of 1862. Members were recruited from invalids and convalescents in hospitals around St Louis, Missouri. They possessed the following boats: Autocrat, BJ Adams, Baltic, Diana, Fairchild, John Raine and Woodford. Organized and trained by Lieutenant Colonel George Currie. They had six companies of infantry and four squads of cavalry, and served in the Vicksburg Campaign.

Following the war, Soll's pension application stated he resided mainly at Lansing, Iowa and Galesburg, Illinois. It cited his primary occupation as farming. He was now forty-three and his height was listed as 5'6" (did he grow two inches). While he had signed his wartime forms with an "x," Soll was now able to sign his legal name.

This account of a Fifth Iowa Infantry veteran is provided by his great-grandnephew, Daniel Zoll.