Davenport in the Civil War: Iowa Time Machine August 25, 1862

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On August 25, 1862, a new military camp opened in Davenport, turning a portion of the city between Farnam Street and Churchill’s Addition into a staging ground for the Union war effort. Camp Herron was one of five Davenport camps that received and trained recruits during the Civil War.

Davenport’s location on the Mississippi River made it a practical center for moving men and supplies. After the war began in April 1861, the city developed a network of camps to handle the rapid demand for Iowa volunteers. Camp McClellan, the first and longest-lasting, opened on the bluffs east of the city limits on August 8, 1861. It could house 1,300 men and stable 100 horses, and five Iowa regiments departed from the camp before it later became a hospital and then a prison site for Dakota people detained after the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862.

Camp Herron opened on August 25, 1862, amid a renewed push to fill Union ranks after President Abraham Lincoln’s July call for 300,000 additional volunteers. Its immediate purpose was to serve as the rendezvous point for the 31st Iowa Volunteer Infantry. The regiment’s ten companies assembled at Camp Herron from September 1 through September 19, and federal officers mustered them into U.S. service between September 15 and October 13.

Camp Herron’s physical footprint has vanished into Davenport’s urban landscape, but its story still challenges the tendency to picture the Civil War only through the lens of famous eastern battlefields. The 31st Iowa went on to fight at Chickasaw Bayou, Arkansas Post, Vicksburg, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, and in the campaigns against Atlanta and through the Carolinas. Camp Herron therefore belonged to the long chain that connected an Iowa recruiting ground to the Union armies fighting across the South. #Iowa #OTD #History #CivilWar #Military