James M. Tuttle

James Madison Tuttle (September 24, 1823 – October 24, 1892) was a soldier, businessman, and politician from the state of Iowa who served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He commanded a brigade and then a division in the Army of the Tennessee in several campaigns in the Western Theater of operations. He led the first Union troops that entered the enemy-held Fort Donelson in 1862, paving the way for the fort's subsequent surrender to Ulysses S. Grant and opening the Cumberland River as an avenue of invasion of the South.

Early life and career James M. Tuttle was born near Summerfield, Ohio, in rural Noble County (then Monroe County) to James and Esther (Crow) Tuttle. When he was ten years old, Tuttle's family moved to Indiana, where his father, a Maine-born farmer who kept migrating westward, finally settled in Fayette County. Young Tuttle was educated in the common schools of Ohio and Indiana.

In the spring of 1846 the 23-year-old Tuttle moved to Farmington, Iowa, where he engaged both in agricultural and mercantile pursuits. He briefly returned to Fayette County, Indiana, in the fall of 1847, where he married Elizabeth Conner on September 22. They established a household in Farmington. Elizabeth Tuttle died on their fourth wedding anniversary. On August 17, 1853, Tuttle married Ohio-born Laura M. Meek in Farmington; they would have five children together.

Tuttle entered local politics as a Democrat, and was elected in 1855 as the sheriff of Van Buren County, serving two years. In the autumn of 1857, he was elected as the County Treasurer and Recorder, serving a pair of 2-year terms.

In 1864, while commanding the forces around Natchez, Mississippi, Tuttle ordered the Roman Catholic Bishop of Natchez, William Henry Elder, to have certain prayers for the President of the United States recited publicly in the churches of his diocese. Elder refused and petitioned President Abraham Lincoln for relief from the order. Through the efforts of U.S. Senator Francis Kernan, Elder was granted the freedom to practice his religion without obeying Tuttle's directive.

In September 1864, Tuttle resigned his commission and returned to civilian life in Iowa. He served as the state commander of the Grand Army of the Republic for the Department of Iowa.

In 1883, Tuttle switched political parties and was easily elected to another term in the Iowa House as a Republican. Three years later, he was named as the president of the board of directors for the Iowa Soldiers Home.