Mathews, John, 1835 or 1836-1905

Handwritten note in another hand on the back of the envelope: "Mem. Poor Mr. Matthews was one of the unfortunate people unjustly suspected of complicity in the Lincoln murder plot (being friends with John Wilkes Booth). He was seized and for a time imprisoned. The dreadful experience affected his mind and he was eccentric almost to derangment. I knew & often talked with him. L.[?]M."

John L. Mathews was born in Indiana in 1835. He moved to Newton, Iowa in 1854. He enlisted in Company B, Thirteenth Iowa Infantry as a third sergeant in the fall of 1861. He was trained in signalling and also served as a recruiting officer in Vinton, Iowa in 1862. In 1863 he was commissioned a First Lieutenant in the Louisiana Volunteers of African Descent 8th Regiment. He fought in Mississippi, including at Vicksburg, in Louisiana, and in Alabama. Mathews mustered out in January 1866.