Des Moines County is associated with Jimmie Howard, a Marine Corps SSG who served in Viet Cong and Korea and received the Medal of Honor for his actions on Hill 488 along with many additional honors; the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant, an important asset to the county and military since it began production in 1941; the Yellow Spring Township memorial in Kossuth, the oldest Civil War monument west of the Mississippi River; and General John Corse, a politician and soldier who served in the Union Army during the Civil War and at the end of the war was appointed Bt MG for his role in the Battle of Allatoona.