David Bremner Henderson: Iowa Time Machine October 4, 1862

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On October 4, 1862, David Bremner Henderson was injured at the Battle of Corinth, ultimately losing his foot. The injury ended his service with the 12th Iowa Infantry, but not his public career. Years later, the former lieutenant would become the first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from a state west of the Mississippi River.

Born in Scotland in 1840, Henderson came to the United States as a child and grew up in northeastern Iowa. He attended Upper Iowa University in Fayette, where he helped rally fellow students to join the Union army in 1861. Their company entered the 12th Iowa Infantry, with Henderson as a first lieutenant. He was wounded in the neck at Fort Donelson in February 1862 and missed the Battle of Shiloh while recovering.

By autumn, he was back with a small detachment of the 12th at Corinth, a Mississippi town whose crossing railroads made it a prize both armies sought to control. The Battle of Corinth raged on October 3 and 4 as Confederate troops tried to retake the railroad junction from Union forces. On the second day, Henderson was wounded in the left foot. Surgeons could not save it, and an amputation followed. Iowa’s regimental history records that the detachment fought at a steep cost: 39 of its 80 men engaged were killed, wounded, or missing.

Henderson returned to military service as colonel of the 46th Iowa Infantry in 1864. After the war, he practiced law in Dubuque and won election to Congress in 1882. His fellow representatives chose him as Speaker in December 1899, and he served through the end of his House career in 1903. #Iowa #OTD #History #CivilWar #Service