1/Lt. Harvey Graham, Company “B”, First IowaInfantry

Some days are just better than others. Today was one of them.

After a week-long absence from work at the Iowa Historical Museum’s Battle Flags Project, I was anxious to get back and see how things were progressing toward the opening of the upcoming Civil War exhibit; and to finish up on the project flag of the 21st Iowa that we are preparing for its return to the Nelson Pioneer Farm Museum later in the month.

When I entered the office space for the conservation lab I was amazed at the increased numbers of artifacts that were there occupying almost every available space awaiting documentation and some minor cosmetic adjustments before going up to the display galleries once they are ready (probably within the next week, or so..).

Among these artifacts was a magnificently preserved (almost butternut colored) junior officer’s, single breasted frock with some trim at the cuffs and collars that made my heart skip a beat. Like a moth to a flame I swooped in to see the Federal shielded eagle buttons with the Infantry “I” displayed on the shield, and my mind immediately began to turn over the very few extant images that I have seen of the uniforms of the fabled “Governor’s Greys” of the First Iowa Volunteer infantry. The most recent, I believe, was the image that graced the front cover of the quarterly publication of the Company of Military Historians about a year ago.



Archive Photo

Close examination convinced me that the now dusky tan color of the wool was once grayer than it is now, and the piping on the collar (that now looks decidedly brown) was once a much darker black but the ravages of light and years have definitely changed both to their present state.



When Sheila produced the associated documentation for the coat and told me that it belonged to someone named Harvey Graham, I knew what we had.

Jack Lufkin, another Conservator at the museum, also told us that there was a document of some sort on an adjacent table that had the same name (Harvey Graham) on it. He had just seen it when going through papers in the last few days looking for things to put up for the exhibit. I immediately asked to see it.

The document he referred to turned out to be the original commissioning document for 1st Lieutenant Harvey Graham, Company “B” First Iowa Volunteer Infantry, signed by both Governor Samuel Kirkwood and Adjutant General J. (Jesse) Bowen, at Des Moines on May 9th, 1861. The document was also intriguing in that it referred to the First Iowa using the term “militia” and; in fact, Governor Kirkwood is identified on this document at being the “Commander of Militia” in addition to being Governor of the State. Another myth (that Iowa had no “militia” before the war) bites the dust!





This document, executed less than one-month following the firing on Fort Sumter that began the American Civil War, clearly shows that the people living at that time believed that Iowa did, indeed, have a militia, and here was the document that proved it.

Also amazing was that this frock coat had survived in the sort of condition that it is in. Most of the clothing that the First Iowa reported for Federal service in was in tatters by the time that the regiment received it’s baptism by fire at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek on August 10th, 1861, and many of their “parade ground uniforms” had been traded in for buckskins and whatever else they could find that more or less fit them. This uniform and its associated commissioning papers for 1/Lt. Graham will become an integral part of the exhibit that is taking shape and that this Regiment will play a continuing role in presenting to the public over the course of the coming months.

1/Lt. Graham himself would be wounded slightly at Wilson’s Creek and was mustered out of service along with the rest of his regiment in late August of 1861 at St Louis, MO. Graham, and the vast majority of his fellows, would join other longer-term regiments (the First Iowa was a “90-day” regiment that everyone believed would end the rebellion in short order) when he immediately enlisted into the 22nd Iowawhere he served for the rest of the war. His service would include a relatively brief imprisonment after being captured at Vicksburg in May of 1863, and paroled; and, he would rise to the rank of full Colonel by May of 1864, and then be brevetted a Brigadier in July of 1865.

Harvey Graham (born in Darlington Pennsylvania in February, 1828) would pass to his celestial reward at Chicago, Illinois, on January 16th, 1921.

Roster and Record of Iowa Soldiers in the War of the Rebellion: Historical Data Systems, Inc. and Civil War Database.


Respectfully submitted,
David M. Lamb
Volunteer Conservator, Iowa Battle Flags Project