James M. Tuttle

JAMES M. TUTTLE was one of the most conspicuous officers among the Iowa volunteers taken from private life in the Civil War. He was born in Summerfield, Ohio, September 24, 1823. Coming to Iowa in 1848 he located at Farmington, Van Buren County. He served six years in various offices and when the Rebellion began raised a company and was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the Second Iowa Infantry. On the 6th of September, 1861, upon the promotion of Colonel Curtis, Tuttle succeeded to the command of the regiment. At the Battle of Fort Donelson he led the Second Iowa in the thickest of the fight and it was the first to pierce the enemy's lines. This charge was one of the most brilliant feats of that great victory. At the Battle of Shiloh Colonel Tuttle commanded a brigade which fought most gallantly at the "Hornet's Nest." On the 9th of June he was promoted to Brigadier General. In 1863 General Tuttle was nominated by the Democratic State Convention for Governor. He issued an address to the voters of the State but was defeated by Colonel Wm. M. Stone, the Republican candidate. He remained in the army until the spring of 1864, commanding a division a portion of the time. In 1866 he was the Democratic candidate for Congress against General Dodge, Republican, but was defeated. In 1872 he was elected to the House of the Fourteenth General Assembly. In 1882 he became a Republican and was elected the following fall by that party to the Legislature. He died in Arizona, October 24, 1892.

SOURCE: Benjamin F. Gue, History of Iowa, Volume 4: Iowa Biography, p. 269-70