Colonel John Morrow Hedrick.

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John Morrow Hedrick.

Birth: Dec. 16, 1832, Scott County, Indiana.
Death: Oct. 3, 1886, Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa.

Wife: Matilda Caroline Haines Hedrick.
Married 1853.

Children: Clarence H., dying in infancy; Kate M., Howard L., Harry McPherson, Charles M., and Carita B. Hedrick.

Burial: Ottumwa Cemetery, Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa.

Iowa Adjutant General Office.

Company D.

John M. Hedrick, Age 28, residence Ottumwa, Nativity Indiana.  Appointed First Lieutenant November 1, 1861, from Quartermaster.  Mustered in November 1, 1861.  Promoted Captain Company K., February 11, 1862.

Company K.

Wounded and taken prisoner April 6, 1862, Shiloh, Tennessee. Paroled.  Promoted Major January 17, 1862; Lieutenant Colonel April 22, 1863.  Wounded left side July 22, 1864, near Atlanta, Georgia.  Promoted Colonel August 18, 1864.  Brevet Brigadier General United States Army, March 13, 1865.  Mustered out August 11, 1866.

General note.

Colonel John M. Hedrick. was so severely wounded at Atlanta, July 22, 1864, as to disable him for active service, was detailed for special duty as a member of a General Court Martial in Washington D. C., and was retained upon that duty until August 11, 1866.  When he was mustered out of service, he received the Brevet rank of Brigadier General March 13, 1865.  After the close of the war he made a most honorable record in public and private life.
He died at his home in Ottumwa, Iowa.

Surgeon General Report.

CASE 621. Lieutenant Colonel John M. Hedrick, 15th Iowa, was wounded near Atlanta on July 22, 1864, and after Surgeon William H. Gibbon, of his regiment, had applied a primary dressing, he was transferred to the hospital of the Seventeenth Army Corps, thence was admitted into hospital at Chattanooga, where Surgeon J. H. Phillips, U. S. V., records the injury as a flesh wound of the back. Thence this officer was sent to hospital at Louisville on August 10th, where Surgeon A. T. Watson, U. S. V., records "gunshot wound of left forearm and of left hip." He was mustered out of service on August 11, 1866, and was pensioned. On September 4, 1867, Pension Examiner W. S. Orr reports: "A musket ball carried away the left transverse process of the fifth lumbar vertebra, penetrated the os ilium of the same side near its connection with the sacrum, and emerged through the ilium near its anterior superior spinous process. The wound has been followed by extensive exfoliation of the ilium, which has not yet entirely ceased. Disability total." Promoted to a colonelcy, and brevetted a brigadier for gallantry, this officer subsequently regained his strength, and, in 1872, visited Washington, in tolerably robust health.

John Morrow Hedrick Biography.

Publish in 1878.

Picture publish date 1878.

HEDRICK, JOHX MORROW, GEN. is a native of Indiana; born in Rush Co., Dec. 16, 1832; son of Hon. J. W. Hedrick, afterward a resident of Wapello Co.; came to Iowa in 1845 ; his opportunities for education were limited, yet at the age of 17, he had qualified himself for a teacher, and from that time until he was 20, passed his winters in teaching, and his summers on his father's farm ; in 1852, entered a mercantile house as clerk ; soon became a partner, and, before long, proprietor of the house ; with the exception of two years devoted to the real estate business, gave his entire attention to mercantile pursuits until the beginning of the war. In August, 1861, he closed out his business in Ottumwa for the purpose of entering the service, and before the close of that month, had enlisted enough men to entitle him to a First Lieutenant's commission ; received his commission as First Lieutenant of Co. D, 15th I. V. I., Sept. 20, 1861 ; Dec. 23, was made Quartermaster of that regiment.

While in rendezvous at Keokuk, was promoted to the captaincy of Co. K, and with this rank entered the field ; Shiloh was the first battle in which this regiment was engaged, and there Gen. Hedrick distinguished himself; was wounded and taken prisoner ; he, with about two hundred and fifty other officers, was forwarded to Corinth, thence by rail to Memphis ; was more than fifty hours without food, and the first given them was raw bacon and rotten bread ; was six months and seven days in the various prisons of the South ; finally paroled Oct. 18, 1862, and came to his home in Ottumwa ; as soon as he learned of his exchange, rejoined his regiment at La Fayette, Tenn., Feb. 9, 1863, and was immediately promoted to the rank of Major.

On the 22d of the following April, was made Lieutenant Colonel, and with this rank won his chief laurels ; in 1864. while before Atlanta, the Republican State Convention, on account of the fact that Iowa soldiers were allowed to vote, sent him as a delegate to represent the Iowa soldiers at the Baltimore National Convention which renominated Abraham Lincoln, he voting for Lincoln and Johnson. When, after the fall of Atlanta, Col. Belknap was made Brigadier General, Lieut. Col. Hedrick was promoted to the full colonelcy of the 15th I. V. I., his commission dating Aug. 20, 1864; in this battle, he was wellnigh fatally wounded, but was so conspicuous for bravery that he was brevetted Brigadier General ; his injuries were too severe to permit him to again take command in the field ; after many weeks, when partially recovered, was detailed for duty in the War Department at Washington, where he remained from March, 1865, to Sept. 1866.

This military record was taken from Stewart's " Iowa Colonels and Regiments," and from Ingersoll's " Iowa and the Rebellion. When mustered out of service, he was appointed Postmaster of Ottumwa, which office he held until 1870, when he was appointed Supervisor of Internal Revenue for Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Colorado and Dakota, which position he held until 1876 ; during his incumbency of this office, he was especially detailed in charge of the great whisky cases at Milwaukee and Chicago, which required his entire attention for twelve months, and for the management of which he was complimented by Secretary Bristow and the Treasury Department. At his appointment as Postmaster, in 1866, was elected by the stockholders of the Ottumwa Courier Company as its editor, and had charge of the editorial columns until 1869, meantime becoming half-owner of it. In that year.

Maj. Hamilton bought the other half, and they together had charge of it until Jan. 1, 1878, during which time its general business and property value increased three or four fold. In 1868, he was one of the Delegates at Large to the Chicago Convention, which first nominated Gen. Grant, and was one of the Vice Presidents of that Convention, and also one of the committee that went to Washington to notify Grant of his nomination. When Gen. Hedrick retired from the Courier, he gave his time chiefly to looking after the interests of the Cedar Rapids, Sigourney & Ottumwa Railroad Co., of which he is President, and of attending to his real estate matters in Ottumwa.

He is extensively engaged in fruit-growing; is somewhat interested in agriculture, and is President of the Wapello County Agricultural Society. Gen. Hedrick was one of the first to agitate the subject of the improvement of the waterpower in Ottumwa, and when he became connected with the Courier, brought all the influence of his paper to bear toward its accomplishment. He has also always been actively interested in the projection and completion of railroad facilities for Ottumwa. In 1853, he married Matilda Caroline Haines, a native of Illinois ; resident of Wapello Co. since 1844 ; have had six children, the eldest, Clarence H., dying in infancy ; the living are Kate M., Howard L., Charles M., Harry McPherson and Carita B.

Arthurs note.  His Biography was written ten years before his death.  HIs Obit., has some information not in his biography if you would like to read it take this link.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=hedrick&GSfn=john&GSmn=m&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=9918639&df=all&