Showing posts with label 13th US Infantry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 13th US Infantry. Show all posts

Saturday, March 23, 2019

Major-General William T. Sherman to Captain Charles C. Smith, October 4, 1863

Gayoso House, Memphis, Tennessee,
October 4, 1863 — Midnight.

Captain C. C. Smith, commanding Battalion Thirteenth United States Regulars.

My Dear Friend: I cannot sleep to-night until I record an expression of the deep feelings of my heart to you, and to all the officers and soldiers of the battalion for their kind behavior to my poor child. I realize that you all feel for my family the attachment of kindred, and I assure you of full reciprocity.

Consistent with a sense of duty to my profession and office, I could not leave my post, and sent for the family to come to me in that fatal climate, and in that sickly period of the year, and behold the result; the child that bore my name, and in whose future I reposed with more confidence than I did in my own plan of life, now floats a mere corpse, seeking a grave in a distant land, with a weeping mother, brother, and sisters, clustered about him. For myself I ask no sympathy. On, on I must go to meet a soldier's fate, or live to see our country rise superior to all factions, till its flag is adored and respected by ourselves and by all the powers of the earth.

But Willie was, or thought he was, a sergeant in the Thirteenth. I have seen his eye brighten, his heart beat, as he beheld the battalion under arms, and asked me if they were not real soldiers. Child as he was, he had the enthusiasm, the pure love of truth, honor and love of country, which should animate all soldiers.

God only knows why he should die thus young. He is dead, but will not be forgotten till those who knew him in life have followed him to that same mysterious end.

Please convey to the battalion my heartfelt thanks, and assure each and all that if in after years they call on me or mine, and mention that they were of the Thirteenth Regulars when Willie was a sergeant, they will have a key to the affections of my family that will open all it has; that we will share with them our last blanket, our last crust!

Your friend,
W. T. Sherman,
Major General

SOURCES: James C. Bush, Editor, Journal of the Military Service Institution of the United States, Volume 15, p. 1110-1; Fold3.com Civil War Pension Index Cards for the identification of Captain Charles C. Smith, 13th United States Infantry.

Diary of Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: November 5, 1863

A warm fall evening. How I am moved as I read the letter below. My own dear boys, and my feelings towards the soldiers who are kind to them; Willie too — the name of sister Fanny's lost boy. Oh, and my dear sister too. How many will love General Sherman for that letter who would never care for any laurels he might earn in battle.

[Pasted in the Diary is a copy of General Sherman's famous letter to Captain C. C. Smith of the Thirteenth Regulars, thanking the regiment — in which his little son Willie had fancied himself a sergeant — for the “kind behavior” of its officers and soldiers to his “poor child.” “Please convey to the battalion,” the letter says in conclusion, “my heartfelt thanks, and assure each and all that if in after years they call on me or mine, and mention that they were of the Thirteenth Regulars, when poor Willy was a sergeant, they will have a key to the affections of my family that will open all it has, that we will share with them our last blanket, our last crust.”]

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 444

Friday, October 31, 2014

Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood to Adjutant General Lorenzo Thomas, January 1, 1863

Executive Office,
Jan. 1, 1863.
L. Thomas,
Adjutant General, U. S. A.

Sir: — In November last Capt. Parker had in camp and was filling up a company, the organization of which was commenced August 18. The company had been full, but by reason of delay in getting barracks, a number of the men had left. The county authorities of the county in which the company was being raised, in order to encourage enlistment and thus secure the county against the liability to a draft, were paying a county bounty of $50 to single and $75 to married men. The men had received this county bounty, but the company was not fully organized, nor had the men signed triplicate enlistment papers as required by General Order No. 75, 1862.

Under these circumstances Capt. Yates, 13th U. S. Infantry, recruited nine of these men for the regular army from the State camp, and the Adjutant General of the State refused to permit them to go into Capt. Yates' company. I learn that you have issued instructions to Capt. Hendershott at Davenport, to turn the men over to Capt. Yates, taking them from the company for which they enlisted.

I respectfully and firmly protest against this action; these men were not liable to enlistment in the regular service, because they had not then signed their enlistment papers; they were not liable to enlistment as citizens, because they had then volunteered and were in camp as part of an organized company, being raised by one of my recruiting officers to fill a requisition made upon me by the Secretary of War.

It is bad enough to have our volunteer organizations, raised with so much labor and mustered into the United States service, decimated to furnish commands for men who do not enlist men under them; but if these men are allowed to go among our incomplete organizations and take from them men who have been recruited by State recruiting officers, and who have received large, local bounties, it is proper I should say frankly, I shall not feel disposed to make any great exertion for the future to procure voluntary enlistments. In this particular case the company from which these men are taken is assigned to one of our old regiments, and with these men lacks three of having the minimum number. If these men are taken away this company will be still further delayed in its completion. The officers who have raised it have spent much time and money in raising the company, and plainly speaking it is an outrage on them to take the men from them. Capt. Hendershott. at my request, has delayed any action on the order issued to him till I can hear from you, and I earnestly request a careful consideration of the matter, as your decision must seriously affect further recruiting in the State. I cannot get men to undertake to recruit companies, if while they are engaged in the work officers of the regular army can seduce their men from them by promising the immediate payment of the bounty which is delayed to them as volunteers.

Very respectfully,
SAMUEL J. KIRK WOOD.

SOURCE: Henry Warren Lathrop, The Life and Times of Samuel J. Kirkwood, Iowa's War Governor, p. 237-8

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Brigadier-General Thomas Kilby Smith to Eliza Walter Smith, October 20, 1863

Headquarters Second Brigade,
First Div., Seventeenth Army Corps,
Vicksburg, Miss., Oct. 20, 1863.
My Dear Mother:

General Grant received your letter and of this I have written before. He is now gone, I don't know whither — flitted with his staff and surroundings before I had come back, as the swallows flit in the fall. I do not think you have got a right estimate of Sherman. You call him “slow, cautious, almost to a fault.” On the contrary, he is as quick as lightning, the most rapid thinker, actor, writer, I ever came in contact with — proud and high-spirited as an Arab horse. Grant is slow and cautious, and sure and lucky. They are both good men. Men you would admire if you knew them, and men who upon first blush you would be marvellously deceived in.

You ask about the tribute from the old “54th.” I understand the boys have made arrangements to fit me out; but haven’t received the articles. Somebody said that they were sumptuous. I suppose they would get the best that money could buy, for they think a heap of “old Kilby” — the only name by which I am known in the Fifteenth Army Corps. Strangers used to come and ask for Kilby, and for a long time I rarely heard the name of Smith as applied to myself. I don't know but what their presents have been burnt up or sunk in the river. There has been a great deal of loss lately. When they come, I will let you know and tell you all about them.

Enclosed herewith find copy of a letter written by General Sherman to the 13th Regulars on the occasion of the death of his son at Memphis. I saw a copy by accident to-day, and together with the brief notice that his son had died, is the only intelligence I have. He had his boy with him, a bright, active little fellow, who rode with him wherever he went, and who was a great pet with his own old regiment, the 13th Regulars. You know General Sherman came into the service as colonel of this regiment at the outset of the war. The death must have been sudden, and you perceive by the tenor of the letter how deeply he feels it. I do assure you that we find every day in the service, that “the bravest are the tenderest, the loving are the daring.” I will forward your letter to him, and perhaps you had better address him again on the occasion of his bereavement. I am sure he is a dear friend of mine, and in the chances of this war, calculating upon his position and mine, it is hardly probable we shall meet again. Like him, “on, on, I must go, till I meet a soldier's fate, or see my country rise superior to all factions, till its flag is adored and respected by ourselves and all the powers on earth,''1 and now our paths are slightly divergent. Can you imagine it, even as I write, the enclosed order is handed me, and received without one pang of regret. I copy verbatim. You may understand the chances and changes of a soldier's life. The darky says, “here to-morrow and gone to-day.”


Special Orders
No. 236.

headquarters Seventeenth Army Corps,
Dept. Of The Tennessee,
vicksburg, Miss., Oct. 20, 1863.

Brig.-Genl. E. S. Dennis, U. S. Vols., will report forthwith to Genl. McArthur, to be assigned to command of Second Brigade, First Division, and will relieve Brig.-Genl. T. K. Smith.

Brig.-Genl. T. K. Smith, on being relieved from command of Second Brigade, First Division, will proceed forthwith to Natchez, Miss., and report to Brig.-Genl. M. M. Crocker, commanding Fourth Division, for assignment to command of Brigade in Fourth Division.

By order of Maj.-Genl. Mcpherson,
W. T. Clark,
A. A. General.
Brig.-Genl. T. K. Smith,
Com'g Second Brigade, First Division.


Thus you perceive, having licked the Second Brigade into shape, I am assigned elsewhere. Meanwhile, pray for me, and thank God that everything has transpired to take me out of the filthy God-forsaken hole on a hill. My next will be from Natchez and will contain full directions how to address me. Keep writing, and enclose my letters with request to forward to Major-Genl. James B. McPherson, commanding Seventeenth Army Corps, Department of the Tennessee, Vicksburg, Miss. He is my warm, intimate, personal friend, and will see that all come safe to hand. I enclose you his carte. He is very handsome, a thorough soldier, brave as Caesar, young, a bachelor, and — engaged to be married.

Genl. M. M. Crocker, to whom I am about to report, is a most excellent gentleman and eke a soldier, thank God! graduate of the Military Academy of West Point, also an intimate of mine and friend. Somehow or other, the West Pointers all take to me, and by the grace of God I find my way among soldiers. You can't understand all this, but it is most delightful to have a soldier, a real soldier, for a commander and associate. Natchez, by this time is a second home to me. I know a heap of people and have some good friends even among the '”Secesh.” I may be there a day, a month, a year, nobody knows and nobody cares. I can pack, and “get up and dust” as quickly as any of them.
_______________

1 General Sherman's letter to Capt. C. C. Smith 13th Regulars.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 340-2

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Colonel Thomas Kilby Smith to Elizabeth Budd Smith, June 22, 1863

Headquarters Dept. Of The Tenn.,
Near Vicksburg, Miss., June 22, 1863.

I am ordered upon special and delicate business which may cause me absence from headquarters and mail facilities for some days and perhaps some weeks, and write now that you may not be worried, if you do not hear from me with the usual regularity, and in any event to reassure you from any fears for my personal safety.

I have been for a week or more past in close and intimate, I may say almost confidential communication with General Grant; not detached by formal order from my regimental command, but virtually for temporary purposes. I don't know what my future status in the army may be. You must not expect me home soon; perhaps not till the political aspect in Ohio demands the presence of troops there, which from recent events, I conjecture is a time not far distant.

In my letter covering the copy of my official report of the recent engagement I forwarded you some time since, I forgot to give you special caution not to publish the same; never show or publish, except to confidential friends, anything of an official character I may send for your edification. The rule upon this matter is peremptory with the War Department, and must be respected.

Vicksburg is sure to be ours I think not very many days hence; how long, no one can tell, but it is most surely invested. Its garrison is slowly but surely wearing out. Johnston's movements are mysterious; we are always prepared for him.

McClernand . . . is at last superseded. We are most thankful; it will doubtless raise a good deal of a breeze.

P. S.—I enclose a slip; in many respects the account is defective, in all partial; take it as a whole, it gives a more fair account than any I have seen in the papers of the affair. My report is in all respects strictly true. I fought under General Grant's own eye; his report was submitted to, and pronounced upon by General Sherman before I forwarded it. The great attack was made on the 29th; that is the first attack. You will hardly credit what I am about to write, but it is also strictly true, that the attack of that day was made by two thirds of one tenth of the whole force of Grant. That is, the Second Division of the Fifteenth Army Corps, General Sherman, was the only one who obeyed the order; and what I am about to write will be testified to by General Ewing of the Third Brigade, only that the Second Brigade, the 13th Regulars of the First Brigade, and two regiments of the Third Brigade were all that went in. In point of fact, save by the 13th Regulars, I was alone and unsupported. The history of these matters will some day be given to the world, truthful, unvarnished.

Well, as a whole, this account is fair enough and worth reading. But no account, written or verbal, can give anybody the slightest conception of the affair; you might as well try to describe the falls of Niagara.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 306-7

Thursday, December 5, 2013

13th United States Infantry

Created by direction of the President May 4, 1861, and confirmed by Act of Congress July 29, 1861. Organized at Jefferson Barracks, Mo. Company "A" organized October 8, 1861, "B," "C" and "G" November 13, 1861. "D," "E" and "F" April 1, 1862. Battalion ordered to Alton, Ill., February 12, 1862, and duty there till September 4, 1862. Moved to Newport News, Va., September 4, and duty there during Kirby Smith's threatened attack on Cincinnati, Ohio. Moved to Memphis, Tenn., October 14-22. Attached to District of Memphis, Tenn., Hight Wing 13th Army Corps, Dept. Tennessee, to December, 1862. 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, Sherman's Yazoo Expedition to January, 1863. 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, 15th Army Corps, Army Tennessee, January, 1863. Headquarters, 15th Army Corps, to September, 1863. 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, 15th Army Corps, to December, 1863. District of Nashville, Tenn., Dept. Cumberland, to July, 1865.

SERVICE. – Duty at Memphis till November, 1862. Grant's Central Mississippi Campaign, "Tallahatchie March," November 26-December 12. Sherman's Yazoo Expedition December 20, 1862-January 3, 1863. Chickasaw Bayou December 26-28. Chickasaw Bluff December 29. Expedition to Arkansas Post, Ark., January 3-10, 1863. Assault and capture of Fort Hindman, Arkansas Post, January 10-11. Moved to Young's Point, La, January 17-22, and duty there till March. Expedition to Rolling Fork via Muddy, Steele's and Black Bayous March 14-27. Black Bayou March 21. Deer Creek, near Rolling Fork, March 22. At Young's Point till April 29. Demonstration on Haines and Drumgould's Bluffs April 29-May 2. Moved to join army in rear of Vicksburg via Richmond and Grand Gulf May 2-14. Jackson May 14. Battle of Champion's Hill May 16. Big Black May 17. Siege of Vicksburg, Miss., May 18-July 4. (1st at Vicksburg.) Assaults on Vicksburg May 19 and 22. Advance on Jackson, Miss., July 4-10. Siege of Jackson July 10-17. At Big Black till September, 1863. Moved to Memphis, Tenn., thence to Chattanooga. Tenn., September 27-November 21. Action at Colliersville October 11. Operations on the Memphis & Charleston Railroad in Alabama October 20-29. Bear Creek, Tuscumbia, October 27. Chattanooga-Ringgold Campaign November 23-27. Battles of Chattanooga November 23-25. Foot of Missionary Ridge November 24. March to relief of Knoxville, Tenn., November 28-December 17. At Bellefonte, Ala., till January 1, 1864, and at Huntsville, Ala., till April 4. Duty at Nashville, Tenn. Guard at Headquarters of General Sherman till July, 1865. Battle of Nashville December 15-16, 1864. Moved to St. Louis, Mo., July 13-20, 1865. To Jefferson Barracks August 8. To Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, August 24, thence moved to Fort Riley, Kansas. Company "E" at Newport Barracks, Ky., September 4, 1862, to May 4, 1863. At Dayton, Ohio, till June 6. Moved to Vicksburg, Miss., June 6-16.

Regiment lost during service 3 Officers and 55 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 7 Officers and 121 Enlisted men by disease. Total 186.

SOURCE: Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Part 3, p. 1713

Saturday, November 16, 2013

William T. Sherman, Jr.








WILLIAM T.

SON OF

WILLIAM T. AND ELLEN E.
SHERMAN


Born In San Francisco, Cal.
June 8, 1854

Died In Memphis, Tenn.
October 3, 1863


OUR LITTLE SERGEANT
WILLIE

FROM 1ST BATTALION 13TH U. S. INFANTRY




Calvary Cemetery & Mausoleum
St. Louis, Missouri

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Colonel William T. Sherman to Thomas Ewing Jr., May 23, 1861

OFFICE ST. LOUIS R.R. Co.,
ST. LOUIS, May 23, 1861.

. . . I am satisfied with Mr. Lincoln's policy, but I do not like that of the Blairs. I know Frank Blair openly declares war on slavery. I see him daily, and yesterday had a long talk with him. I say the time is not yet come to destroy slavery, but it may be to circumscribe it. We have not in America the number of inhabitants to replace the slaves, nor have we the national wealth to transport them to other lands. The constitution has given the owners certain rights which I should be loath to disturb. I declined the chief clerkship because I did not want it. You know enough of the social status of a Washington office-holder to appreciate my feelings when I say that I would infinitely prefer to live in St. Louis. I have seen enough of war not to be caught by its first glittering bait, and when I engage in this it must be with a full consciousness of its real character. I did approve of the President’s call, and only said it should have been three hundred thousand instead of seventy-five. The result confirms my opinion. I did approve of Lyon's attack,1 and said it was inevitable; only I thought the marshal should have demanded the arms which reached the camp unlawfully through the custom house. The firing on the citizens, I know, was in consequence of the nervousness of the new militia, was wrong, but just what every prudent person expected. I have always thought that if it could be avoided, Missouri should be held with as little feeling as possible, because of necessity her people must retain the rights of franchise and property. Wherever I see that persons miscalculate the state of feeling I endeavor to correct it, because a fatal mistake in war is to underrate the strength, feeling and resources of an enemy. . . .
__________

1 Sherman's observations on this episode of the early days of the war in Missouri are fully recorded in the Memoirs, I, 200-202.

SOURCE: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of General Sherman,  p. 197-8

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Colonel Charles Henry Abbott

FIRST COLONEL, THIRTIETH INFANTRY.

The late Charles H. Abbott of the 30th Iowa Infantry was born in Concord, New Hampshire, on the 25th day of January, 1819. His ancestors were Puritans. His grand-father of the sixth generation was George Abbott, who, coming from Yorkshire, England, settled in Andover, Massachusetts, in the year 1643. Of that patriarch's grand-children, numbering seventy-three, thirty settled in Andover. The others wandered through New England and the Middle Colonies, where they made themselves homes. The family is one of the oldest in the country, and also one of the most numerous and widespread. Nathaniel Abbott, the colonel's great-grand-father, was a captain in the Provincial Army, and served through the French and Indian wars. His grand-father, Joshua Abbott, was a captain under Warren, and commanded a company at Bunker Hill; and his father, also christened Joshua, a Congregational minister. The latter died at Norfolk, Virginia, in about the year 1828. The Rev. John S. C. Abbott, the celebrated author and historian, is a cousin of the late colonel, as is also Jacob Abbott, an author of some note.

The subject of this memoir, who was the youngest of eight children, left New England at the age of sixteen for New York, whence, after a few months' residence, he removed to Michigan. In 1850 he left Detroit, and, coming to Iowa, settled in Louisa county. Later he removed to Muscatine. His business in Iowa was that of a farmer, land-agent and banker. In 1853 he married Miss Julia Beach, an accomplished lady and a daughter of the Rev. John Beach of Michigan. Two little boys remain to her as her only hope.

Colonel Abbott entered the service in the summer of 1862, as colonel of the 30th Iowa, and commanded his regiment in the battle of Chickasaw Bayou, and in the charge against the enemy's works at Vicksburg, on the 22d of May, 1863. In the last named engagement he was killed, while leading his regiment. Of the Iowa colonels, he was the third to fall dead or mortally wounded in battle.

The operations of the 30th Iowa, while under the command of Colonel Abbott, will be found substantially recorded in the sketches of Brigadier-General, then Colonel Williamson, of the 4th, and Colonel Milo Smith, of the 26th Iowa regiments. The 30th Iowa was not engaged at Chickasaw Bayou, though it had four men wounded, while lying under the enemy's guns, on the third day of the battle — one corporal and three enlisted men.

At Arkansas Post, the regiment was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Torrence, Colonel Abbott being sick. In this action, it was under fire for about three hours. It engaged the enemy from behind their works on the left, and, lying down, kept up an incessant fire, till the white flag was hoisted. The regiment suffered quite severely in killed and wounded: five were killed, and thirty-nine wounded. Among the wounded were Captains R. D. Cramer and Uley Burk; Lieutenants H. L. Creighton and W. L. Alexander; Sergeant-Major Clendening, and Sergeants York, Detwiler and Gregg. The following is from Lieutenant-Colonel Torrence's report:

"There is nothing further which I deem it my duty to mention, save that both officers and men generally acted well for new troops. I might mention to you with great propriety a few instances of cool and commendable courage, displayed by some of the men, they having fallen under my immediate notice during the action; but I forbear mentioning any save one, and that is the case of James M. Smith, a private of Company C, a single young man, not yet arrived at his majority. * * * His conduct on the battle-field, in the late engagement, was such as to secure implicit confidence in his courage and ability." The night following the engagement was one of great fatigue to the 30th Iowa; for it was detailed to guard prisoners, and to escort them inside the fort, and was not relieved till after midnight. The "Deer Creek raid" follows next in the history of the regiment, an account of which is elsewhere given; and next, the march to the rear of Vicksburg and the environment of that city. In this march, the regiment was attached to the 15th Army Corps — Sherman's — and marched by way of Grand Gulf to Jackson, and thence to the rear of Vicksburg. General Sherman's account of the advance from Jackson will be read with interest. The 30th Iowa, it should be remembered, was attached to Steele's Division.

"On the morning of the 16th, [May] I received a note from General Grant, written at Clinton, reporting the enemy advancing from Edward's Depot, and ordering me to put in motion one of my divisions toward Bolton, and to follow with the others as soon as I had completed the work of destruction ordered.

"Steele's Division marched at ten A. M., and Tuttle's followed at noon. As the march would necessarily be rapid, I ordered General Mower to parole the prisoners of war, and to evacuate Jackson as the rear of Tuttle's division passed out. I paroled these prisoners because the wounded men of McPherson's Corps had been left in a hospital in charge of Surgeon Hewitt, to the mercy of the enemy, who I knew would re-enter Jackson as soon as we left. The whole corps marched from Jackson to Bolton, nearly twenty miles, that day; and the next morning resumed the march by a road lying to the north of Baker's Creek, reaching Bridgeport, on the Big Black, at noon. There I found Blair's Division (which, with one of McClernand's Divisions, and a wagon-train had been left near New Auburn) and the pontoon-train. The enemy had a small picket on the west bank in a rifle-pit, commanding the crossing; but, on exploding a few shells over the pit, they came out and surrendered — a lieutenant and ten men. The pontoon bridge was laid across under the direction of Captain Freeman, and Blair's and Steele's Divisions passed over that night. Tuttle's followed the next morning. Starting with the break of day, we pushed on rapidly and by nine and one-half A. M. of May 18th the head of the column reached the Benton road; and we commanded the Yazoo, interposing a superior force between the enemy at Vicksburg and his forts on the Yazoo. Resting a sufficient time to enable the column to close up, we pushed forward to the point where the road forks, and sending forward on each road — the 13th Regulars to the right, and the 8th Missouri to the left, with a battery at the forks, I awaited General Grant's arrival."

From this point, Sherman, by Grant's order, gained a position in front of the enemy's works north of Vicksburg. Steele's Division led the advance, and, by a blind road on the right, winding through rugged, precipitous hills, came up squarely to the Mississippi above the city. This happened on the morning of the 19th instant; and that morning a cheering sight greeted the eyes of the soldiers, who, for two weeks, or more, had been shut completely out from God's country. In plain view were the old camping-grounds at Young's Point; and, only five or six miles away, the Union fleet loaded down to the guards with government rations. Looking southward, the sight was less cheering. "Vicksburg was in plain view, and nothing separated us from the enemy but a space of about four hundred yards of very difficult ground, cut up by almost impassable ravines, and his line of intrenchments."

Without that line of intrenchments, bristling with hostile bayonets, and defended by artillery, with black, gaping mouths staring madly at you through embrasures, the sight would have been magnificent; for the dome of the court-house and the tall spires of wealthy churches looked up through the waving branches of luxuriant shade-trees, which dotted the hills and hill-slopes in all parts of the city. Splendid private residences, too, adorned with all the taste of modern art, reflected their beauty in the morning and evening sun.

The first charge against the enemy's works was made on the 19th of May, the day concerning which I have just now spoken. General Grant's reasons for making this charge, and the results which followed, he gives as follows:

"I was not without hope of carrying the enemy's works, relying upon their demoralization, in consequence of repeated defeats outside of Vicksburg; and I ordered a general assault at 2 P. M. on this day. The 15th Army Corps, from having arrived in front of the enemy's works in time on the 18th to get a good position, were enabled to make a vigorous assault. The 13th and 17th Corps succeeded no further than to gain advanced positions, covered from the fire of the enemy."

Neither this charge, nor the one made three days later, was successful; and is it strange? It is rather wonderful that every man who joined in these assaults was not left, either dead or wounded, under the guns of the enemy.

The character of the country for miles around Vicksburg is hilly and broken; and the nearer you approach the city the wilder and more impracticable it becomes. The hills lie, as a general thing, I believe, in great parallel, semi-circular ridges, with Vicksburg as the centre; but they lap each other, and shoot out spurs in every direction, thus forming deep, winding ravines, which were filled, as a general thing, with underbrush, and standing and fallen timber. The works around Vicksburg were constructed by the best engineers the Confederacy could boast; and not a ravine was there which approached these works that was not swept by artillery and enfiladed by musketry. The hill-sides were precipitous, and in many places obstructed: these were also swept by a front and enfilading fire. None who know the ground will say that I have drawn too strong a picture.

Grant failed to carry the enemy's works on the 19th instant. The following are his reasons for attempting it on the 22d.:

"I believed an assault from the position at this time gained could be made successfully. It was known that Johnson was at Clinton with the force taken by him from Jackson, reinforced by other troops from the east, and that more were daily reaching him. With the force I had, a short time must have enabled him to attack me in the rear, and possibly succeed in raising the siege. Possession of Vicksburg at that time would have enabled me to turn upon Johnson, and drive him from the State, and possess myself of the railroads and practicable military highways, thus effectually securing to ourselves all territory west of the Tombigbee; and this, before the season was too far advanced for campaigning in this latitude. I would have saved the government sending large reinforcements, much needed elsewhere; and finally, the troops themselves were impatient to possess Vicksburg, and would not have worked in the trenches with the same zeal, believing it unnecessary, that they did after their failure to carry the enemy's works."

There was one other reason, I believe, which influenced General Grant in making the assault, of which from some cause he does not speak. Valorous Falstaffs at the North, some of them wearing civic honors and others at the head of influential public presses, had long croaked of indecision and inactivity. Such (and they were legion) could not be appeased, except by blood; but even now he had not closed their twaddling lips; for they prated of the "useless sacrifice." Now that he wears triumphal honors, they fawn about him like so many worthless curs; but I know he spurns them with contempt.

Twice it has been my fortune, myself removed from danger, to witness the fierce conflict of two contending armies. Once, standing on a high hill on the north bank of the Tennessee, I saw the veterans of Howard assail the enemy and drive them from their works on Orchard Knoll, back of Chattanooga. I also had previously witnessed the bloody and unsuccessful charge of the 22d of May, at Vicksburg: that was the grandest and most terrible sight I ever looked on. The high ground east of Fort Hill and near the White House was the standpoint; and I can now recall the whole scene, as though it had passed but yesterday. Here was Grant's look-out, and, near him, were McPherson and Logan. Sherman was already advancing on the right; and soon McClernand was boasting that he had captured three forts, and was master of his position. I heard a lieutenant-colonel announce this to Logan, when that general yelled with an oath to the new brigadier, Leggett, "to move at once on the enemy's works in his front, or he would arrest him."

All this time, and for more than an hour previous, above an hundred pieces of artillery had been booming, and throwing their ponderous projectiles into and above the enemy's works. Porter, during the same time, was tossing his big mortar shells into the doomed city. Huge volumes of smoke in front, and on the right and left, were rising lazily in the air, revealing the most interesting and anxious part of the scene — the infantry. There they were — some winding their long lengths through the deep ravines, to gain their designated positions, and others, further on, deployed on the hill-sides, and, with their bodies thrown forward, working their way up toward the enemy's works. So intent was I in watching those in front that I did not observe others. These, soon arriving near the summit of the hill across which stretched the enemy's works, raised the battle-cry, and dashed forward. I began to hope there was no enemy to oppose them, or that they would not fire; but at that very instant, the smoke from at least two thousand muskets leaped down in their very faces. Horrors! It seemed as though three-fourths of them fell. The line did not waver: the men were butchered; for I saw only a few run hurriedly back down the hill. By reports afterward made, however, the casualties could not have been as large as I suppose: many of the men, while enveloped in the smoke, must have sought and found cover.

The 30th Iowa was under Steele, away on the extreme right, and beyond my observation; but it joined in the same general charge, a portion of which I have given. Among the many gallant men who fell that day, on the slopes and ridges that encircle Vicksburg, was the lamented Colonel Charles H. Abbott. He was struck in the chin by a musket-ball, which, passing through his throat, came out at the back of his neck. He fell instantly and was carried from the field. His last words were words of cheer to his men. He never spoke after he was shot, and lived only about three hours. He died and was buried near the spot where he fell; and the valley beneath whose turf he was temporarily laid was designated by General Sherman as "Abbott's Valley." His body was afterward removed to Muscatine and buried on the banks of the majestic Mississippi. Iowa, "the land of flowers," and the State he loved so well is the shrine of his mortal remains. Brave, good man! he lived worthily and died nobly; and his name stands among the first on the State's Roll of Honor.

SOURCE: Addison A. Stuart, Iowa Colonels and Regiments, p. 453-60