Solomon Meredith

Solomon Meredith was born May 29, 1810, in Guilford, North Carolina and moved to Wayne County, Indiana at the age of nineteen, where he worked as a farm laborer to pay for his education. At the age of twenty-four, he was elected sheriff and served two terms. Meredith served four terms in the state legislature and was appointed U. S. Marshal in 1849. Governor Oliver P. Morton appointed Meredith colonel of the 19th Indiana, and upon arriving in Washington in August 1861, Meredith boldly visited President Lincoln to ask for new blue uniforms for his regiment. Meredith participated at the Second Manassas against Stonewall Jackson where the 19th Indiana suffered 259 casualties, and he was severely wounded. His horse was shot underneath him, Colonel Meredith was crushed, and broke his ribs. In October 1862, Meredith was promoted to brigadier general, but not without some raised eyebrows. Meredith had long lobbied for the position having written Governor Morton April 17, 1861, asking to be appointed to the rank. He had been recommended for promotion by General Joseph Hooker in recognition of his achievements in the battle of Antietam – a battle Colonel Meredith was not present for. In November 1862, Meredith received command of the “Iron Brigade” made up of two Indiana, one Michigan, and three Wisconsin regiments. He led the brigade at Fredericksburg and played a support role at Chancellorville. At Gettysburg, his brigade was engaged in the early fighting, and Meredith was again wounded. A piece of shrapnel hit him in the head knocking him unconscious, and his dead horse fell on top of him. In early 1864, he went to Cairo, Illinois to command a garrison, and while there, ran unsuccessfully against George Julian for the U. S. House of Representatives. Meredith would be charged with assault and battery in November 1865 after beating Julian unconscious with a rawhide whip, but his political influence resulted in the charges being dropped. In September 1864, he was transferred to Paducah, Kentucky where he remained until the war ended. He was brevetted Major General of Volunteers in August 1865. Solomon Meredith served as Surveyor General of the Montana Territory from 1867 to 1869 when he returned to his farm, “Oakland,” near Cambridge City. There he raised prized long horn cattle. He died on his farm October 2, 1875, and was buried in Riverside Cemetery.

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