Pleasant Hill offers glimpse into MP military history

Mt. Pleasant?s Pleasant Hill neighborhood southeast of town has a rich history of military service.

In documents, supplied by local historian Donald Young, it is stated, ?Immediately on the firing of Ft. Sumpter, a company of Home Guards, numbering sixty, were organized?In the midst of the wheat harvest when news came that the rebels were entering Iowa, one lieutenant?actually dropped his scythe in the field and?By midnight, the company was on its way to Athens, Mo. by wagon train.?

The ?Pint,? a nickname for Pleasant Hill, has seen its sons fight in every major war from the Mexican War to WWII. In total 43 veterans are buried at Pleasant Hill.

Camp Harlan saw several of the Pleasant Hill men join the ranks of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). According to the documents, over one-half of Company D, 4th Iowa Calvary were from Pleasant Hill. The documents also say that men from the area kept the ranks full throughout the war.

During the First World War, 17 men from Pleasant Hill went off to the trenches of Europe to serve. Of those 17, only one was left in Europe.

For more on this story, see the August 12 issue of the Mt. Pleasant News.