History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/James C. Parrott

JAMES C. PARROTT was born in Easton, Maryland, May 21, 1811. His father was an officer in the War of 1812 but the son was trained for the mercantile business. In February, 1834, he enlisted in the First United States Dragoons which was largely composed of young men from wealthy and aristocratic families of the eastern States. The regiment was sent to Fort Gibson in Indian Territory. Its colonel was Henry Dodge and its adjutant Jefferson Davis. Young Parrott was a sergeant in Company I, whose captain was Jesse B. Browne. The organization of the regiment was completed in the summer of 1834. George Catlin, the famous painter of Indian portraits and writer on Indian life, was with the regiment on its Indian campaign. Three companies under the command of Colonel S. W. Kearny were stationed at old Camp Des Moines the present site of Montrose. The captain of Company B. was E. V. Sumner, afterwards a famous Major-General of the Army of the Potomac. Captain Nathan Boone of Company H, was a son of Daniel Boone of Kentucky. Parrott was with the expedition sent through northern Iowa in 1835 to settle Indian troubles. Elsewhere some account of this expedition is given. Sergeant Parrott was discharged from service in 1837 and took up his residence at Fort Madison. He was intimately acquainted with Black Hawk, the famous Sac chief, and an admirer of that great Indian leader. When the Rebellion began Mr. Parrott raised a company which was incorporated with the Seventh Infantry as Company E with him as captain. In the Battle of Belmont he was dangerously wounded. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel of the regiment commanding it in the battles of Fort Donelson, Shiloh and Corinth, and commanded a brigade in the campaigns of the Army of the Tennessee, under Grant, Sherman and Smith and participated in the battles on Sherman's march to the sea. Colonel Parrott was promoted to the rank of brevet Brigadier-General at the close of the war. He served ten years as postmaster of Keokuk which had long been his home and where he died on the 17th of May, 1898.