Congressman William Vandever Grave Site (Ventura, California)

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William Vandever, 9 Iowa vols, civil war. William Vandever (March 31, 1817 – July 23, 1893) was a United States Representative from California and Iowa, and a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. In 1858 he was elected as a Republican to represent Iowa's 2nd congressional district in the Thirty-sixth Congress, and was re-elected in 1860 to represent it in the Thirty-seventh Congress. He was a member of the peace conference of 1861 held in Washington, D.C., in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war. In 1861, Vandever was mustered into the Union Army as colonel of the 9th Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He commanded the 2nd Brigade in Eugene A. Carr's 4th Division at the battle of Pea Ridge. He was promoted to brigadier general of Volunteers on November 29, 1862 and sent to command a brigade in the XIII Corps of the Army of the Tennessee. He returned to the Trans-Mississippi Theater to command the 2nd Division in the Army of the Frontier at the Battle of Chalk Bluff. He reverted to brigade command under Francis J. Herron during the siege of Vicksburg. He returned to Iowa as a recruiting officer in January 1864. He joined up with William T. Sherman's army in command of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, XVI Corps and fought at the battles of Kennesaw Mountain, Atlanta and Ezra Church. He commanded the Post of Marietta during the fall of 1864 then rejoined Sherman's army in command of the 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, XIV Corps and fought at the battle of Bentonville. He was brevetted to major general in 1865.

Although his official congressional biography states that Vandever only served in Congress until September 24, 1861 (early in his second term), he never resigned his seat. Iowa's only other congressional seat (in the First District) was vacant from August 4 to October 8, 1861 because Representative Samuel Curtis had resigned his seat after receiving command of the 2nd Iowa Infantry, so for a time Iowa was effectively unrepresented in the U.S. House. He died in Ventura, California, in 1893 and was buried in Ventura Cemetery.
His desecrated grave is in a dog park in downtown Ventura. This Civil War General and veteran and Congressman, William Vandever is buried in olde St. Mary's Cemetery and was sold to the city in 1950's. His graves plot is disgracefully a place for dogs to urinate and defecate on today.

www.restorestmarys.org/