Soldiers attack the ramparts in the battle leading up to the siege of Vicksburg . Soldiers from Monroe and Wapello counties were among the only ones to breach the Confederate advances , before being driven back . Painting by Thure de Thulstrop
Voltaire Twombly , of Farmington . Twombly received the Medal of Honor for his actions at the Battle of Fort Donelson in 1862 , in which he carried the colors in the face of Confederate musket fire . He later served as Mayor of Keosauqua and Iowa State Treasurer .
Iowa Attorney General Samuel Allen Rice joined the Union Army in his hometown of Oskaloosa . As a brigadier general , he was mortally wounded leading the defensive effort at Jenkin ’ s Ferry in Arkansas in 1864 . engagement ,” his Medal of Honor citation read .
Twombly survived the war and eventually became Mayor of Keosauqua and Iowa State Treasurer . He died in 1918 , aged 76 .
Another name from the region that came to prominence during the war was Samuel Allen Rice , former Attorney General of Iowa . In 1862 , he mustered the 33rd Iowa Infantry Regiment and was named the unit ’ s colonel , but eventually was promoted to brigadier general .
On April 30 , 1864 , Rice — along with the men of the 33rd — defended the Union breastworks and held off a Confederate advance at Jenkins Ferry in Arkansas . However , Rice was mortally wounded in the engagement , and was returned home to Oskaloosa , where he died two months later . His grave can be found at Forest Cemetery in the Civil War veterans ’ section .
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