In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected President and, on April 12th of the following year, General Beauregard’s cannon fired on Fort Sumter. War followed. Sumter had galvanized both the North and the South and men came quickly as regiments, often poorly equipped and poorly trained, were quickly organized and rushed to the field. On November 15, 1861, Victor’s older brother, twenty-three-year-old John Balluff, enlisted in what would be Company H of Iowa’s 16th regiment of volunteer infantry. John and his regiment left for war on January 28th of the following year while nineteen-year-old Vic stayed on the farm to help his father, sisters and younger brothers.

In the South, John participated with his regiment in battles at Shiloh in Tennessee, Iuka, Corinth and Vicksburg in Mississippi and, on July 22,1864, the Battle of Atlanta in Georgia, where he was taken prisoner. Two months later he was exchanged and free to return to his regiment.

Vic had been prevented from enlisting by his father who needed help on the farm but finally gave his consent. On October 13th, 5' 4½” Vic signed a Substitute Volunteer Enlistment in Delaware County’s Richland Township after agreeing, “for sufficient consideration paid and delivered to me,” to serve as a substitute for local resident Henry Smith.

The regiment was in Georgia when Vic arrived and joined his brother at the Ocmulgee River on November 19th. By then, they were participating in what a poet would later call “Sherman’s March to the Sea.” The campaign ended with the occupation of Savannah on December 21st and the regiment then began a march north through the Carolinas. In February, Vic was treated for several days for cholera but returned to duty on the 9th and was with the regiment when they entered the city of Raleigh on April 10, 1865.

By then the war was essentially over. The North had won and President Andrew Johnson announced plans for a Grand Review with General Meade to lead his northern Army of the Potomac down the streets of Washington D.C. on May 23, 1865, and General Sherman to do the same the next day with his southern armies. On its way north, with John and Vic both present, the 16th Infantry left Raleigh on its way to Washington but, on May 15th, Vic “had a sun stroke caused by the exertions heat & fatigue” and “was unconscious from said sun stroke on or about four o’clock P.M. until about ten o’clock” and, said one of his comrades, Vic was then “carried in the Regt. ambulance.”

Meanwhile, the march continued, reached Washington and marched with Sherman on the 24th. On June 7th, the regiment left Washington and, on the 12th, reached Louisville, Kentucky, where, a week later, they were mustered out and began a return to Iowa where they were discharged from the military. Like John and many other soldiers, Vic elected to have $6.00 deducted from his final pay so he could retain his musket and accoutrements.

On March 26, 1866, twenty-four-year-old Vic and eighteen-year-old Mary Elizabeth Mullen were married in Delhi by Rev. J. B. Boggs. Continuing to live in northeastern Iowa, Vic and Mary had twelve children, from Rosa “Eleanor” in 1867 to Georgia in 1889.
Vic’s brother, John Balluff, had maintained his health well while in the military but, after being ill for several months, died in1880 at forty-one years of age and was buried in County Corners Cemetery. Ten years later, on May 13, 1890, forty-seven-year-old Vic was living near Strawberry Point when he applied for an invalid pension.

Federal pension laws at the time required that applicants for invalid pensions show at least ninety days service, an honorable discharge and a service-related disability that prevented the applicant from earning a subsistence, in whole or part, by manual labor. Vic said that, due to the sunstroke suffered in the military, he was suffering from “a disability in breathing which he thinks to be asthma that he cannot stand to do work in a hot sun or any exposure in the sun when it is excessively hot.”

To support his claim, he secured affidavits from comrades John Huntington, Martin Coltenbaugh and Albert Little who had served with him in Company H and were present when he “was sunstruck” and from Asa Haskins (a veteran of the state’s 21st Infantry) who said he believed Vic “was a sound man” when he entered the service but “since he came out of the army he has been troubled for want of breath” and sometimes had to “quit work on account of not being able to work in the hot sun.”

Often overwhelmed by applications, the Bureau of Pensions began the long process to verify Vic’s health issues in the military and that John, Martin and Albert were present when they said they were. On January 21, 1891, Vic was examined in McGregor by a Board of Pension Surgeons who reported that “he is in our opinion entitled to an 8/18 rating for the disability caused by asthma,” but the process continued. John and Albert provided more information. He’s “a good and honorable man,” said Albert. He was a “good and obedient soldier and attended strictly to duty,” said John. Vic tried to supply more evidence but the surgeon “who treated him at the time of sun stroke and afterwards” was dead. Dr. Wheeland who had treated him after his discharge was also dead and Vic was now only taking “simple home remedies and patent medicine.”

While the pension process dragged on, Vic and Mary had their thirteenth child, a daughter named Susan, on December 15, 1891, but finally, on March 17, 1893, almost three years after Vic applied, a pension examiner submitted the application, it was approved and a certificate was mailed entitling Vic to a $6.00 monthly pension, payable quarterly through the local pension agency.

On January 13, 1896, Victor Balluff died from “disease of the chest” and the undertaker, Charles Roberts, was called to his home “to lay out” Vic’s remains. Two days later, Vic, like his brother, was buried in the Country Corners Cemetery in Cass Township.

On the 22nd, Mary applied for a widow’s pension and for additional amounts for five children who were under sixteen years of age when their father died. Representing her was Gilbert Cooley who had served in the state’s 21st Infantry and was now representing numerous veterans who were seeking pensions.

Asa Haskins knew Vic and Mary had “always lived happily together.” Susan Haskins, Asa’s wife, said she had been Mary’s neighbor for thirteen years, knew all the children were born “in lawful wedlock” and knew that the oldest, fifteen-year-old Barbara, was “hopelessly incompetent both physically and mentally to provide or care for herself.” Benjamin Dueul and John Baird signed affidavits swearing that Mary had not remarried after her husband’s death while Rev. Thomas Rowe, Pastor of St. Mary’s Church, submitted a transcription of the baptismal records for the five children. Mary’s claim for Victor’s accrued, but unpaid, pension was approved as was her own claim for a widow’s pension. On October 19, 1897, a certificate was issued entitling her to a $12.00 monthly pension with an additional $2.00 monthly for each of the children until their sixteenth birthdays.

Mary died on June 24, 1926, and was buried next to her husband in County Corners Cemetery.