James M. Simeral.

Iowa First Cavalry Regimental History.

 

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Lieutenant James M. Simeral, Company L, with twenty dismounted men of Companies L and M, recaptured the howitzer and brought it off the field. It was a most daring act of bravery, k 4 pluck and c nerve, for twenty men in the very face of an overwhelming force of the enemy to recapture the gun. Perhaps none except Lieutenant Simeral and a few i dare devils of these companies would have entertained the thought of such an exploit for a moment.

The location being most unfavorable for a cavalry engagement, all the cavalry were ordered to take position upon the prairie, and the First Iowa Cavalry ordered to support Allen s Battery. That battery proved to be well able to take care of itself, for guns were never worked better. The battery appeared to be in one constant sheet of flame, so rapid were the discharges. Three different times the rebels charged it in immense numbers from their cover upon the wooded hillside, and as many times they would waver, halt and retreat in the utmost disorder, leaving the field strewed with dead and wounded.

James M Simeral.

Birth: Mar. 12, 1822.
Death: Oct. 25, 1902.

Wife: Martha W. Simeral ( 1823-1900.)

Children: Edward W. Simeral (1854 - 1928).

Burial:Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Omaha, Douglas County, Nebraska .