Military History

Page created March 2, 2010







There are more than twenty veterans of the American Revolution buried in Owen County, most having served in various state militias. The first soldiers who served as residents of Owen County were in the Mexican-American War. Almost all were members of Company B. Fourth Indiana Volunnteers. The company was organized in Gosport during May 1847 with Jesse I. Alexander as Captain. It served in Mexico, and returned to Gosport in July of 1848. John Moore and Thomas A. McNaught were members of the Third Indiana Regiment. Moore sickened and died in Mexico, McNaught returned to serve during the Civil War, becoming Colonel of the 59th Indiana Regiment and later brevetted Brigadier General, and took command of the First Brigade of the Third Division, Fifteenth Army Corps. While Owen County men served in many organizations, most were in locally formed companies. These were:

Fourteenth Indiana Regiment, Company H
Nineteenth Indiana Regiment, Company I
Twenty-first Indiana Regiment, Company B (later First Heavy Artillery) 
Thirty-first Indiana Regiment, Company B
Fifty-ninth Indiana Regiment, Company A
Seventy-first Indiana Regiment, Company F (later Sixth Indiana Cavalry)
Ninety-seventh Indiana Regiment, Companies B, F and H
One Hundred and Fifteenth Indiana Regiment, Company G
One Hundred and Forty-ninth Indiana Regiment, Company D
Twenty-eighth United States Colored Troops.

Most of the African-American soldiers associated with Owen County were in the Twenty-eighth Regiment. This was the Indiana Regiment of colored soldiers. However, Martin Scott was in the above noted Nineteenth Indiana Regiment.

The county records as veterans; 57 Spanish-American, 1,049 WW I, 1,932 WW II, 236 Korean Conflict, Vietnam Era 252. These numbers surely are very much on the low side.