Frank Nolen, Russell & the Siege of Vicksburg

Civil War veterans in the Russell area decided during late 1885 and early 1886 that there were more than enough of them to organize a new chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic, similar to today's American Legion or VFW but designed to cease operations when the last veteran of that war died. Previously, veterans in eastern Lucas County who wished to join had affiliated with Daniel Iseminger Post No. 18, chartered in Chariton on Oct. 18, 1879.

G.A.R. posts almost always were named for heroic local figures, many of whom had fallen in combat during the war. Iseminger Post was named for Capt. Daniel Iseminger, of Chariton, who fell at Shiloh on April 6, 1862, while commanding Co. B, 6th Iowa Volunteer Infantry.

Russell's Frank Nolan Post No. 208 was chartered on March 17, 1886, with 20 members who obviously revered Nolan --- but exactly why isn't clear. Time and circumstance have obscured his record and, for that matter, his name. First Lt. Francis M. "Frank" Nolen, Co. E, 34th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, spelled his surname with an "e" rather than an "a." 

So far as Lt. Nolen's military record is concerned, we know that he was 34 when he enlisted during October of 1862 at Chariton in Company E, 34th Iowa, a unit raised largely in Lucas County. He was commissioned 1st lieutenant on Oct. 15, 1862, under the command of Capt. Nelson B. Gardner and served until Jan. 11, 1864, when he resigned his commission --- most likely due to ill health --- and returned to Chariton where he died two and a half years later, on April 27, 1867, the year Russell was founded. He was buried in the Chariton Cemetery. Those are the bare bones.

So I was gratified the other day to come across a little story about Frank, as told by one of his commanding officers, Lt. Col. Warren S. Dungan, also of Chariton, in The Washington National Tribune of Nov. 23, 1905. The Tribune was a national newspaper founded during 1877 in Washington, D.C., to serve Civil War Veterans and their families. Here's Col. Dungan's letter to the Tribune editor. The engagement he refers to in it is the Siege of Vicksburg, May 18-July 4, 1863.

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Editor National Tribune: In a sample copy of The National Tribune of Nov. 23, I read with pleasure McElroy's Chapter XXXIII, "Opening of the Mississippi."

One of his  illustrations brought to my recollection an incident in the experience of the 34th Iowa in that siege. I refer to the illustration, "Communicating with the Fleet at Vicksburg."

The 34th Iowa was with Gen. Herron, arriving at Vicksburg about June 11 (1863), and taking our place in the line of investment on the Mississippi River below Vicksburg, thus closing up a gap which until then existed in the line. Our pickets were thrown well to the front and our sappers and miners closer still to the enemy's works. The ground they occupied was heavily timbered.

Porter's fleet of gunboats was directly opposite us towards the right bank of the river, and far beyond the reach of the human voice.   One day the shells from the fleet aimed, doubtless, at the "Lone Tree Fort," fell short cutting off the tops of the trees over the heads of our men and endangering their lives.

We  had no Signal Corps with us. There was not a skiff  or boat of any kind to be hand and no way of communicating with the fleet to advise it and have the gunners aim higher.

In this emergency, Frank Nolan, First Lieutenant, Co. E,  34th  Iowa,  plunged into the  river and swam to the  nearest gunboat and informed them of the situation. In going and returning, Lieut. Nolan was heartily cheered by the men on shore and by the marines on his return when they learned of his purpose in swimming to them.

Nolan was a large, fine-looking man and an efficient officer, and one universally beloved by all his men. His residence was Chariton, Iowa, and he has long since gone to  his reward. (signed) Warren S. Dungan, Lieutenant-Colonel, 34th Iowa, Chariton, Iowa.

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So there we have a very brief glimpse of Lt. Frank Nolen recalled some 40 years after his death by someone who would have known him well.

I have no idea who Frank's parents were, but he turns up first by full name in U.S. census records during 1850 when he was 22, single and living in Clay County, Indiana. Birthplace was given as Pennsylvania and his occupation, as potter. A year later, on May 1, 1851, he married Rebecca Mauk in Muskingum County, Ohio.

According to Rebecca's obituary, the couple lived for three years in Indiana and then moved west to Lucas County, Iowa,, where they established in 1854 a home just west of Chariton. When the 1856 Iowa census was taken, the Nolens were enumerated in White Breast Township with their eldest daughter, Minora. Again, Frank's occupation was given as potter.

By the time the 1860 census was taken, Frank's occupation was listed as farmer and with real estate valued at $2,000 and personal property valued at $500, the family appeared to be prospering in a modest sort of way.

According to Rebecca's obituary, the couple became parents to eight children, including one who died in infancy. Minora, Marion, John and Racine all died as children during the early 1860s and are buried in the Chariton Cemetery. Robert F., Everett G. and Mary Ella (Whisenand) reached adulthood.

The fact that the men of Company E. 34th Iowa, selected Frank to serve as first lieutenant, or second in command of their unit (and yes, that was how it worked with many Civil War units raised in Iowa), suggests that he was widely respected at the time of his enlistment during the fall of 1862.

The fact that he was honorably discharged after 15 months of service and then died two and a half years later suggest that his health had been ruined by the war, although we don't know exactly why.

Whatever the case, Rebecca did not remarry and raised her three surviving children on the farm west of Chariton. Civil War widows were entitled to pensions providing they did not remarry, but she apparently had trouble establishing her claim. It was not until June of 1886, nearly 20 years after Frank's death, that The Chariton Patriot of June 9 was able to report, "The pension claim of Mrs. Nolan, widow of Lieut. Frank Nolan, Company E, 34th Iowa Infantry, has been allowed, giving her $17 per month from 1867, aggregating an amount of nearly $5,000. It is a tardy but grateful act of justice."

Rebecca was 74 when she died on Sept. 20, 1905, and was buried in the Chariton Cemetery next to Frank, who had passed nearly 40 years earlier.