Group photograph, consisting of five 1st Iowa Cavalry officers; front row, seated, left to right are Captain Thomas Jones, Major John McDermott, and Captain T.A. Bereman; back row, standing, are Lieutenant Samuel T. Craig and Major Charles Lothrop.
Thomas Jones, a native of Pennsylvania and resident of Towanda, Illinois, enlisted on June 13, 1861 as a private in Company C; mustered into service the following month, he was promoted to first sergeant that October, to second and first lieutenant in 1862, and to captain in February 1863. He was discharged in St. Louis in December 1864.
John McDermott, a native of Ireland and resident of Dubuque, Iowa, enlisted in Company G as third sergeant in June 1861; mustered into service that August, he was promoted to first lieutenant in September 1861, to captain in 1862, and to major of the regiment’s first battalion in June 1864. McDermott was mustered out with the regiment at Austin, Texas, in February 1866, and died in Chicago, Illinois, on January 14, 1913.
Thomas A. Bereman was born in Hendricks County, Indiana, on March 4, 1833. He came to Mount Pleasant in 1845, attended Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, and was admitted to the bar in 1859. Bereman was appointed a second lieutenant in Company E in June 1861 and was mustered into service the following month. He resigned in September 1862, but reentered the army and was mustered in as a captain in June 1863. He was promoted to major of the regiment’s second battalion in February 1865. He died in 1904 and is buried in Forest Home Cemetery, Mount Pleasant, Iowa.
Samuel T. Craig, born in Corydon, Indiana on March 22, 1835, moved to Albia, Iowa, in 1855. He enlisted as a bugler in Company H in June 1861, and was mustered into service that August. He was promoted to first sergeant in September 1862, to second lieutenant the following February, and to first lieutenant in April 1865. He died on March 17, 1902, and is buried in Oakview Cemetery, Albia, Iowa.
Charles Henry Lothrop was born in Taunton, Massachusetts on September 3, 1831. He graduated from the University of the City of New York in 1858 and moved to Lyons, Iowa. Lothrop enlisted in the regiment in May 1862 as assistant surgeon. He was promoted to surgeon in July 1864, and was mustered out with the regiment in February 1866. Dr. Lothrop died in Lyons on February 6, 1890, and is buried in Oakland Cemetery, Clinton, Iowa. Lothrop’s A History of the First Regiment Iowa Cavalry Veteran Volunteers was published in 1890.
The 1st Iowa Cavalry saw service in Missouri in 1861 and 1862 against regular Confederate and guerrilla forces, then served in Arkansas. In 1864, the Iowans participated in Steele’s Camden Expedition and continued to serve in Arkansas before being transferred to Texas in 1865.
Albumen by Unknown Photographer
Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 12033
