Joseph Lee Heywood
[1] He grew up on a farm near Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, which he thought of as his hometown although his birthplace and that of his siblings was recorded as Royalston, Massachusetts, a city just a few miles away.
He worked as a clerk in a drug store in New Baltimore, Michigan, for another year and then according to his military records, he moved to Davenport, Iowa.
Joseph remained with his unit, traveling first to Cairo, Illinois, by train and then by steamer to Memphis, Tennessee, where he was promoted to corporal.
His initial duty chasing Generals Sterling Price and Earl Van Dorn did not result in any actual combat but he was soon drawn into the disastrous Battle of Chickasaw Bayou, led by General William Tecumseh Sherman, where he functioned as a skirmisher along the edge of the bayou and received intense fire from the Confederates on the bluff above the "Valley of Death" as well as some accidental friendly artillery fire.
The troop transport steamer that picked him up after the withdrawal from Chickasaw Bayou took Joseph directly to the very middle of the battle at Arkansas Post.
After making multiple assaults on the fort over open level ground, "The earth was literally blue from one end of their line to the other", according to one Confederate participant.
While working in the disease-infested Desoto Peninsula on the Williams-Grant Canal project, the 127th Illinois was called upon to rescue Admiral Porter's gunboat fleet that had been ambushed by rebels in Deer Creek.
Colonel Thomas Kilby Smith remarked about his men (which included Joseph Heywood), "The whistling of bullets is as familiar to their ears as household words.
He helped to destroy the enemy war-making capabilities in Jackson, and then moved on to the bloody battle of Champion Hill, serving temporarily under the command of General John McClernand.
Heywood and his comrades traversed some very treacherous terrain to advance to a position under one of the defender's parapets at Stockade Redan in the first of two bloody assaults on Vicksburg.
They were receiving enfilading fire and taking heavy casualties while the Confederates were rushing reinforcements to that area as T. K. Smith's soldiers fixed bayonets and prepared to charge.
He was subsequently admitted to the City U. S. Army General Hospital in Chicago on October 24, 1863, with a diagnosis of chronic diarrhea and was returned to duty ("refronted") on November 30, 1863.
By December 4 he was back in Adams U. S. Army General Hospital in Memphis where he was called a "convalescent" with the notation that he had returned from "Desertion, furlough."
After three months he was considered fit for duty, even though he still carried a diagnosis of chronic diarrhea, and was back aboard the R. C. Wood bound for Nashville.
After only a month and a half of being an attendant, Joseph was diagnosed with anasarca, a severe edema associated with kidney or liver failure that could be fatal.
[2] After his discharge in 1865 he spent a year with his brother in Illinois and then moved to Minnesota, living in Faribault and Minneapolis and finally arriving in Northfield in 1867.
Martha died on May 3, 1872, and Joseph, following his wife's wish, subsequently married her best friend and his daughter's namesake, Lizzie Adams, to provide a good mother for their child.
[3][4][5] On September 7, 1876, First National Bank of Northfield's President John C. Nutting and Cashier G. M. Phillips were at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Besides, some of the virtues in which he excelled, such as integrity, moral courage, unflinching steadfastness in pursuing the right, in the tragic circumstances surrounding the close of his life, found not only their supreme test, but their sublime climax as well.
The charm lies in the perfect harmony existing between the acts of the last hour and the conduct of all the years that went before.There was no Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation covering bank funds at the time.
Since that fateful day, Joseph Lee Heywood continues his reputation as the hero of Northfield and is used as a supreme example to the community of a man faithful to duty.
After his death, Carleton College established a Heywood Library Fund and installed a memorial plaque on campus which reads: A man modest, true, gentle; diligent in business; conscientious in duty; a citizen benevolent and honorable; towards God reverent and loyal; who, while defending his trust as a bank officer, fearlessly met death at the hands of armed robbers, in Northfield, Sept. 7, 1876.
The organization was begun as a way for the College to honor all alumni, parents, and friends whose gifts of future support ensure Carleton's continued excellence.
Heywood's life and death—as well as that of Swedish immigrant Nicholas Gustafson, who was also killed in the raid—is commemorated annually by a service of remembrance at the Northfield City Cemetery on September 7.
