Information Sheet
R Cree, Alfred
B., 1830‑1901.
301 Letters,
1862‑1863.
Two
folders.
These are Civil War letters of Capt.
Alfred B. Cree of Co. F., 22nd Iowa Infantry. Cree wrote of family matters, camp life, and
regimental politics from Benton Barracks at St. Louis, and from camps at Rolla, Salem, Iron Mountain and Ste. Genevieve, Missouri.
Alfred B. Cree was born in 1830 at Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
By 1860, he was a resident of Iowa City, Iowa, where he worked as a carpenter and
cabinet maker. He married Martha Smith
of Iowa
City
in 1860. Cree answered the call for
volunteers by enlisting in the 22nd Iowa Infantry in August 1862. He was prominent enough to be elected captain
of Co. F, which was composed largely of men from the Iowa City area.
The 22nd Iowa was ordered to Benton Barracks at St. Louis in September 1862, thence to their first
duty station at the post of Rolla.
October and November were spent in scout and escort duties. In late December, the regiment joined the
brigade of Brig. Gen. Fitz-Henry Warren at Houston, Missouri. Warren’s brigade joined the Army of
Southeastern Missouri at West Plains in late January 1863, and participated in
a dismal winter campaign which terminated at Pilot Knob. The respite was brief before orders arrived
directing the 22nd to march to the Mississippi River for transport to the Vicksburg area.
The 22nd arrived at Ste. Genevieve on March 11, 1863, and embarked for Vicksburg on March 22.
Capt. Cree served with his regiment
during the Vicksburg operations in 1863, the campaigns in
western Louisiana and Texas in 1863‑1864, Sheridan’s Shenandoah Valley campaign in 1864, and Sherman’s march through Georgia.
He survived a gunshot wound to the left leg at Cedar Creek, Virginia, in October 1864, recovering to muster‑out
with the 22nd Iowa at Savannah, Georgia, on July 11, 1865.
He returned to Iowa City, where he resumed his trade. Cree was
very active in the reunions of the 22nd Iowa, first held in 1886. He died in 1901 and is buried at Iowa City.
The Cree collection consists of letters
by the captain in Missouri to Martha Cree in Iowa City.
There are also brief notes to Mrs. Cree by the regimental surgeon,
William H. White, and the adjutant, John W. Porter. There is a single letter by Capt. Cree to his
father‑in‑law, John M. Smith.
The letters generally concern family business matters and regimental
politics, especially concerning Co. F, but also include descriptions of Capt.
Cree’s sickness and hospitalization at Rolla, his meeting with Dr. John Hyer,
a noted secessionist at Lake Spring in Dent County, and the town of Ste. Genevieve.
Although the 22nd saw no fighting during service in Missouri, Cree’s letters provide a view of a hard‑working,
conscientious company officer without political pretensions. The letters are especially useful when used
in conjunction with letters from the 22nd in the Iowa City Republican, the published reminiscences of J. C. Switzer
and the history of the 22nd by Samuel C. Jones.
Copies of Cree’s pension papers in the National Archives are filed with
typescripts of the letters in Folder 2.
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