Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1916-04-21
LATE CoMMANDANT IOWA SOL
DIERs, HOME DIES AFTER
LONG ILLNESS.
END COMES PEACEFULLY
At 3:15 At HIS HOME
Had Been Failing For Several Months
and End Was Not Unexpeeted--Was
Fourth commandant Of Soldiers
Homo - Sketch Of Brilliant Military
Career and Public and Private, Life.

Col. G. c. Horton, late commandant
of the Iowa Soldiers Home, died at his
! home at S:15 this afternoon. The end
was not unexpected, and followed an
! illness of three months. He has been
gradually failing since Jan. "a, when
he was in his office for the last time.
Heart and kidney disease combined to
cause his last illness. A.
! The end came peacefully, and fol-
lowed a day of practically total uncon-
seriousness. The patient has been fail
ing rapidly during the past few day.,
and within that time he has been ir-
rational part Of the time.
Colonel Horizons death will be
learned with deep regret not only
among his many friends in the city and
at the soldiers home, but thruout Iowa,
where he was exceptionally well
known.
Native of York State.
Charles Cummins Horton was a ma
tive of New York state, having been
| born. at Goshen, Orange county, Jan. 49,,
1889, q son of DR., James S. and Mary
Gamble Cummins Horton. That young
Horton came of fighting blood" and
possibly was predestined to become a
commander on the field of battle, is
indicated from the fact that he sprang
from Revolutionary stock on both sides.
! his great grandfather, Capt. Jonathan
Horton, serving thruout the revolu-
tfonary war, as we'll as a maternal
grandsire. Archibald Gamble. who was
an engineer on the staff of General
Moultrie, who later laid out Fort Moul-
trie during the war of 1912.
To Iowa in 1848.
In 1S4s the Horton family came to
| Iowa, settling at Muscatine. For two
years the Horizons remained in town,
but in 1850 moved to a farm two miles
distant. Young Horton had started his
schooling In New York state, and con-
tinued it at Muscatine and in district
school near his fathers home in the
country. In 1857 he returned to New
York state and entered the Delaware
Collegiate Institute at Franklin. from
which he was graduated in 1859.
Commands Regiment.
When the first warnings of civil
strife came in 1861, Horton, then q
young man Of 20. talked of enlisting.
and at Muscatine, in July of thatsyear
fSecond Iowa caYal ry.s He was commits
promoted to first lieutenant Nov. @.
On June 4, 1852, he was made captain,
and on Sept. 20, 1853, major OF his reg
iment. From that he rose to lieutenant
colonel, on Sept ~, 1864, and was mus
tered out Sept. 10. 1865, at Selma, Ala.
Colonel Horton was the last CON-
Inc ~ ho
in line for brigadier generalship to
the late w. P. Hepburn, who has just
preceded his old comrade to the place
Of final muster. At the age of %. and
then a major, Horton commanded his
regiment, altho Hepburn had been made
colonel. He, however, was on detached
service, and never was in command of
the Second. Horton commanded the
regiment as lieutenant from the time it
veteranized in 1864 until the regiment
was mustered out, and for the last few
months Of his service was in command
of his brigade.
Saw Thirty-one engagements.
During his four years service Colonel
Horton participated In thirty -one en-
gagements. His first fight was the
battle of Monterey, where William Pax
ton, Of Indiantown, Tama county. was
the first man OF the regiment to be
killed. Horton was in the fighting at
New Madrid, Island No. 10, the two
battles at Bonneville In the second Of
which Phil Sheridan won his first star;
Pennington, Iuka and Corinth, Tupelo,
Jackson, and Nashville. In the famous
charge at Harrington, made by the
Second Iowd. on May 7, 1852, Horton
had his horse shot from under him. He
was wounded in the battle of Coldwater
in September, 1868, and carried a rebel
bullet in his hip to his death.
Returns to Iowa in 1866.
Directly after the war Colonel Hor-
ton went. to Alabama swhere, in COM
pany with Captain Brunton, Of the
Second Iowa, he engaged in a coal min
ing enterprise near Toledagoula. The
business did not prove profitable, how
ever and In 1885 Horton returned to
lied in the raising of small fruits and
fine stock, largely horses. Later, for
several years, he was in the abstract
business In Muscatine in company with
John Kemble,s under the finn name Of
Horton & Kemble. p
Fourth Commandant Soldiers Homo.
2 Colonel Horton has been in public
life practically all the time since he:
returned from his army service. He
was made the fourth commandant of
the Iowa Soldiers Home, taking charge
Of the institution in November, 1897,
altho his appointment was effective
from Oct. IL. He has been reap
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