George Frederick Dick

George Frederick Dick was born February 22, 1829, in Tiffin, Seneca County, Ohio. At the age of two, he moved with his parents to Cincinnati and was educated in public school there. At the age of sixteen, he joined a juvenile military company, the Cincinnati Cadets, and was chosen captain. The experience proved useful when he assumed the duties of a real soldier. He entered business in Cincinnati as a tobacconist, spending twelve years in the profession before moving to Attica, Indiana, where he went into the same business. When Lincoln issued the first call for troops, Dick closed his business, helped organize a three-month company, and was chosen its captain. Their services were offered to Governor Oliver P. Morton, but there was no place for them at that time, and they were rejected. A second call for troops was issued May 3, 1861, and Dick was mustered in on July 22, 1861, as captain of the 20th Indiana Volunteers. His first service with the 20th was in Maryland guarding the Northern Central Railroad. He participated at Hatteras Island and, on March 8, 1862, in the engagement between the Merrimac, Cumberland, and Congress. Dick saw additional action with the 20th in the Battles of the Seven Days and Chantilly. He was commissioned major on August 30, 1862, and served in that capacity until October 23, 1862, when he was commissioned as Lieutenant Colonel of the 86th Indiana. His first action was at Murfreesboro, and on January 14, 1863, he was appointed colonel of the 86th. Dick participated at Chickamauga, the siege at Chattanooga, and Missionary Ridge. During the Atlanta campaign, he received a severe flesh wound in the hip from a piece of shell at the battle of Pickett’s Mills, Georgia. He returned from a thirty-day sick leave still suffering from his injuries and participated in the battles of Columbia, Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville. He was brevetted a brigadier general on March 13, 1865, for meritorious services during the war. Following the Civil War, Dick moved to Bloomington, Illinois, where he was appointed postmaster of Bloomington by President U. S. Grant. He served in that position for twelve years before retiring to engage in other business pursuits including banking. Dick died November 12, 1894, in Bloomington and was buried there in Evergreen Memorial Cemetery.

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