The 26th Missouri infantry organized from September to December 1861. The regiment fought at New Madrid, Island No. 10, Iuka, Corinth, the siege of Vicksburg, and Missionary Ridge, and participated in Sherman’s “March to the Sea” and the Carolinas Campaign. The 26th Missouri Infantry was mustered out on August 13, 1865.
Photographed are six officers from the 26th Missouri Infantry; listed left to right: James M. Dennis, Edward H. Stoddard, William H. Mengel, John W. Maupin, Robert B. Denny, and John T. Crow.
James M. Dennis joined Company K, 26th Missouri Infantry as a sergeant on September 16, 1861, in Medora, Missouri. Promoted to first lieutenant of Company C in June 1862, he was promoted to captain the following July. Dennis served until he was mustered out of the regiment in December 1864. He died in July 29, 1913, in Port Angeles, Washington.
Edward H. Stoddard joined Company A, 26th Missouri Infantry as a brevet second lieutenant in September 1861, and was promoted to second lieutenant the following month. He was soon transferred to Company B, and was promoted to first lieutenant the following June. After Company B’s captain was killed at the Battle of Champion Hill in May 1863, Stoddard was promoted to captain and assumed command of the company. Stoddard was killed in action at the Battle of Missionary Ridge on November 25, 1863. His personal effects, including his sword, leather valise, and overcoat, were sent to his sister.
John W. Maupin joined Company A, 1st Missouri Infantry as a private on April 30, 1861, and was mustered out on August 2. He then joined Company F, 26th Missouri Infantry in Pacific, Missouri on October 14, 1861 as first sergeant, and was promoted to second lieutenant the following July. Maupin was wounded slightly in the head by a gun shot at the Battle of Iuka in September 1862. Promoted to first lieutenant in September 1863, Maupin resigned from the army in April 1864 in order to care for his widowed mother, explaining that he felt it his duty “to go to her assistance in her old age.” His mother either died or recovered, for in August 1864 Maupin was commissioned a recruiting second lieutenant in Company K, 47th Missouri Infantry. He was commissioned captain of Company D the following month and was mustered out in March 1865. The 47th saw duty in southeast Missouri and central Tennessee. Maupin died on April 27, 1911.
John T. Crow, born in 1841 in Franklin County, Missouri, enlisted in the 26th Missouri Infantry on October 3, 1861, at Pacific, Missouri. He was mustered into the Federal service as first sergeant of Company E, 26th Missouri Infantry at Camp Herron, Pacific, Missouri, on December 20, 1861. Crow was promoted to second lieutenant with Company E on June 26, 1862; on December 1, 1862, he was promoted to first lieutenant and assigned to Company I. On June 1, 1863, Crow was promoted to captain and assumed command of the company. Crowe mustered out when his enlistment expired on December 25, 1864, at Nashville, Tennessee. He died on April 16, 1923, in Beaufort, Mo.
Robert B. Denny, born in 1838 in Richmond, Kentucky, joined Company E, 26th Missouri Infantry as a second lieutenant on September 18, 1861, in Pacific, Missouri. He was promoted to first lieutenant the following July and was wounded by buckshot in the left thigh that passed “deep though the flesh” at the Battle of Iuka in September 1862. Promoted to captain in October 1863, Denny was mustered out in December 1864. He died on January 24, 1921, in Lonedell, Missouri.
William Mengel, born in Hesse Cassel, Germany, in 1838, came to America with his parents in 1847. He moved to California, Missouri in 1859 and worked as a store clerk. Mengel began his Civil War service in the summer of 1861. According to the History of Moniteau County, Missouri, when the California Guards company of the Missouri State Guard left the county for Boonville, Mengel was one of the “non-Jackson men” who were pressed into service as a teamster with the State Guard, but was soon released.
Mengel joined the Union Army as a first sergeant in Captain Theron M. Rice’s Company G, 1st U.S. Reserve Corps, Missouri Home Guards in June 1861, and was mustered in on July 16, 1861, in California, Missouri. He was promoted to second lieutenant on August 16. Wounded and captured at the siege of Lexington, Mengel was paroled on September 25, 1861, and was mustered out on October 1.
He enlisted as a first sergeant in Captain Rice’s Company G of the 26th Missouri Infantry on October 4, 1861, and was mustered into service on January 9, 1862. Promoted to second lieutenant that June, and to first lieutenant in February 1863, Mengel was promoted to captain and transferred to Company H in June 1864. He was mustered out of service on January 9, 1865 and returned to Moniteau County.
Mengel died on February 20, 1917 in California, Missouri.
Cabinet Card by B.S. Cooper, California, Mo.
Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 31359
