CORNELIUS'S 100 DAYS in the 47th IOWA INFANTRY

I do not have a copy of Cornelius Friend Shoemaker's discharge papers, but I did find this documentation of his service in the Union Army.

1890 Census of Union Veterans & Widows

Cornelius Shoemaker, private, company B.   Polk Twp, Nodaway Co., Missouri

Regiment: 47 Iowa Infantry

enlistment: 17 May 1864   discharge: 28 Sep 1864  length of service: 4mo 11days

post office address: Maryville, MO  disability: [none]

Running Away

As Jessie tells the story of Cornelius, he ran away from home at 16 to join the army.

According to mapquest, the journey from Centerville to Davenport is about 180 miles.
The journey from there to where they were stationed near Helena, Arkansas was
more than 600 miles, and likely took several weeks to travel.
(The order to return to Davenport was given on Sept 1, 1864 and they
were mustered out in Davenport on Sept 28, not quite four weeks later.)

Hundred Days Men

"The 47th Regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was among scores of regiments that were raised in the summer of 1864 as Hundred Days Men, an effort to augment existing manpower for an all-out push to end the war within 100 days.

The 47th Iowa Infantry was organized at Davenport, Iowa, and mustered in for one-hundred days Federal service on June 4, 1864 as part of a plan to raise short term regiments for service as rear area garrison duty to release veteran troops for Sherman's Atlanta Campaign. The 47th Iowa garrisoned strategic points in the District of Arkansas.

The regiment was mustered out at Davenport, Iowa, on September 28, 1864."

The Real Enemy: Malaria

"Immediately after its muster into the service the regiment received orders to proceed to Helena. Ark., and was conveyed to that place, where it was assigned to garrison duty. It was attached to the Seventh Army Corps, Department of Arkansas. It remained on duty at Helena and in the Military District of Eastern Arkansas during its entire term of service.

The climate was unhealthful and the regiment suffered greatly from sickness. In this respect it had the same experience that had been encountered by many other Iowa regiments in that same field of operations. The death list of Iowa soldiers at Helena and at other places among the lowlands of Arkansas grew to frightful proportions. It was fortunate for the Forty-seventh Iowa that its term of service was short, and that it was not kept longer in that malarious region. Short as was the time, however, nearly seven per cent of the regiment were fatally stricken, while an equal or larger number returned to their homes with health greatly impaired, some of whom subsequently died of the ailments with which they were afflicted, and many more were never fully restored to health. Disease was the most insidious foe with which the soldiers had to contend.

Sherman at the seige of Atlanta, ca. 1864
image courtesy of Snapshots of the Past

On September 1, 1864, the regiment received orders to return to Davenport, Iowa, at which place it was mustered out of the service of the United States, September 28, 1864. The record of the regiment is altogether a creditable one. It faithfully performed the service to which it was assigned, and relieved other and more experienced troops, who were, thereby, enabled to proceed to the theater of actual warfare, and assist General Sherman in dealing the last crushing blows to the rebellion. Its history comports favorably with that of the other one hundred day organizations from Iowa. It accomplished all that was expected of it, and takes its rightful place in this record of the achievements of Iowa soldiers.

Company "B" roster

Shoemaker, Cornelius F. Age 18. 

Residence Appanoose County, nativity Illinois. Enlisted May 7, 1864. Mustered June 4, 1864. Mustered out Sept. 28, 1864, Davenport, Iowa, expiration of term of service."

Tenth Reunion 40th Iowa Infantry, Newton, IA Oct 12-13, 1897, more than 30 years after the end of the war.
This is not Cornelius's infantry (his was the 47th), but what a great image!

Cornelius was 18 when he was discharged, and Cornelius's father died the following summer from a rattlesnake bite.   It is not clear whether he went back to Centerville at this time, but he was there by 1872 when he married Emma Hunt.