Vigo County, Indiana, resident Jeremiah Mewhinney was born in Ohio in 1825. During the Mexican War he joined the 4th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, mustering in on 1847 June 12 at Old Fort Clark in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Mewhinney served as a private in Company H, a unit comprised mostly of soldiers from Vigo County and known as the Fort Harrison Guards; he mustered out on 1848 July 16 at Madison, Indiana. During his service, Jeremiah wrote letters to his father Johnson Mewhinney and his sister Mary. Returning to Indiana after the war, he married Frances E. Carter in Vigo County on 1849 April 15. The couple had three children: James H., Hannah R., and Lucinda C. Mewhinney again joined a volunteer regiment at the outset of the Civil War, serving as a Captain of Company C, 31st Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He was wounded at the Battle of Shiloh (1862 April 6-7) and died of disease in Chicago, Illinois, on 1864 June 24.
References
Beckwith, H. W. History of Vigo and Parke Counties, Together with Historic Notes on the Wabash Valley . Chicago: H. H. Hill and N. Iddings, 1880.
Van Horne, Thomas B. History of the Army of the Cumberland: Its Organization, Campaigns, and Battles . Cincinnati, Ohio: Robert Clarke and Co., 1875.
From the guide to the Mewhinney Family Letters Col 260., 1847-1852, (Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library at the Alamo, San Antonio, Texas)
