The Dead Of Fort Donelson

The report of the death of Captain Slaymaker received mournful confirmation by the letter which we publish this morning.  It has been truly said, ‘Death loves a shining mark,’ and seldom has this adage received a more striking exemplification that this sad event.  The advices that give us this intelligence also tell us of the loss of four others of that company, and the wounding of twenty more.

JONATHAN SMITH SLAYMAKER was born on the 31st of March, 1836, at Margeretta, York county, Pa.  On the paternal side, he was descended from an old German family of Pennsylvania; while his maternal grandfather, Jonathan Smith, was long president of the United States bank at Philadelphia, and Gen. Persifor F. Smith, distinguished in the Mexican war, was his uncle.  Among his first occupations, Capt. Slaymaker was engaged as civil engineer on the Pennsylvania Central R. R., the experience there acquired being of service to him in the position he has so recently filled.  Coming to this city in 1856, he remained here, with short intervals, till the breaking out of the war.  At this time, he was among the first to volunteer for the war and was elected by his company first lieutenant, and was with his company mustered into service on the 28th of May.  On the resignation of Capt. Brewster, on the 5th of October, Lieut. Slaymaker was chosen to succeed him, and in that capacity led his company at the ever to be remembered charge at Fort Donelson, which proved so fatal to him.  Of all who have gone from this county to the seat of war, none has left behind a larger circle of will-wishing friends, by all of whom he was admired, not more for his truly soldiery qualities than for the modesty and quiet dignity which eminently characterized him in whatever position he might be placed.  Beloved by all his company, and fearless of danger, he was no doubt foremost in the fight, and perished where the balls fell thickest and fastest.  When this war is over, and its heroes are reviewed, none will stand higher in the esteem of those who have known or heard of him than the modest and gentlemanly captain of Company C.

GEO. W. HOWELL, of this township, is also reported among the dead.  He was a native of New York, and was about twenty-one years of age at the time of his death.  He is the son of Mr. Howell, cotton-batting manufacturer near Duck Creek.  This death has plunged into sorrow a numerous family, of whom he was almost the idol.

EDWARD PETERSON, another of the killed, was a native of Germany, and aged about 20 years.

C. H. LENHART, enlisted at Keokuk.  He was a native of Ohio, and aged about 25 years.

There is no person named Myers mentioned in the Adjutant General’s report.  There is a Martin L. Minor, of Andalusia, mentioned, which may be the person, but it is more probably some person who has joined the company since it left the State.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, February 21, 1862, p. 1