History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Hugh T. Reid
HUGH T. REID was born in Union County, Indiana, on the 8th of October, 1811. He received a liberal education, graduating from Indiana College in 1837. He studied law, was admitted to the bar and removed to Keokuk in 1843, where he began practice. Soon after the beginning of the Civil War he began to enlist volunteers for a new regiment. In February. 1862, the Fifteenth Regiment was organized and Reid was appointed colonel. His regiment arrived on the field of Shiloh after the battle had begun and was at once hurried into the thickest of the fight. It made a gallant struggle but was overborne by numbers and finally forced to retreat, losing nearly two hundred men. Upon the recommendation of General Grant, Colonel Reid was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General soon after the battle. He served until the spring of 1864, when he resigned. He was for many years engaged in building the Des Moines Valley Railroad from Keokuk to Fort Dodge.