Showing posts with label Missionary Ridge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Missionary Ridge. Show all posts

Saturday, September 30, 2023

Diary of Private Daniel L. Ambrose: June 17, 1864

It is said we will remain here for a few days. All is quiet this morning. Our camp is at the foot of Lookout Mountain, in the Chattanooga valley. As we look around we are reminded that blood has flowed and noble men died here. Uncoffined graves dot the valley and the mountain side, and here these hallowed mounds will ever appear as landmarks to guide those who have for long weary years sighed for human freedom.

To-day the Seventh boys wend their way up Lookout Mountain; it is a wearisome task; up and up we climb. Soon we are above the clouds where Hooker's bayonets clashed in midnight darkness, when the mountain was wrapped in one grand sheet of battle flame. We are now on Point Lookout looking down in the valley. Lowering clouds hide from our view the landscape; presently the clouds vanish and we now behold Chattanooga and her fortifications beneath our feet; the winding Tennessee, the current of which is moving on towards the father of waters to tell its silent story of blood, and Mission Ridge where warriors moved in the grand pageantry of battle, flinging to the wind a hundred union battle flags. We now turn our eyes towards the Chicamauga [sic], the river of death. As our eyes fall there we remember how General George H. Thomas mastered Longstreet and saved the army of the Cumberland from defeat. As we stand here looking down to where he stood that fearful day, we imagine we see him or them watching the dust as it rose from the feet of Gordon Granger's command. That was a moment of suspense, and we know that General Thomas's heart leaped with joy when Captain Thomas dashed from that cloud of dust to his side with the compliments of General Gordon Granger.

We now descend the mountain side over the rugged cliffs and rocks that have been stained with human gore. Brave men sleep beneath these rocks, but Lookout Mountain will ever stand as a monument to their memory, and through the eventful years to come will guard this fearful silence from tempest and storm.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 244-6

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: November 26, 1863

The weather is clear and bright again ; but, oh, how dark and somber the faces of the croakers!
The following dispatches have been received:

[BATTLE AT LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN.]

(OFFICIAL DISPATCH.)

Mission Ridge, Nov. 24th, 1863.
To Gen. S. Cooper.

We have had a prolonged struggle for Lookout Mountain today, and sustained considerable loss in one division. Elsewhere the enemy has only manoeuvred for position.

Braxton Bragg, General

The LatestOfficial.

chickamauga, Nov. 25th, 1863.
Gen. S. Cooper, A. And I. General.

After several unsuccessful assaults on our lines to-day, the enemy carried the left center about four o'clock. The whole left soon gave way in considerable disorder. The right maintained its ground, repelling every assault. I am withdrawing all to this point.

Braxton Bragg.
Official—John Withers, A. A. G.

All agree in the conviction that the enemy has been defeated— perhaps badly beaten.

Hon. H. S. Foote, just arrived from the vicinity of the field, says Bragg has only some 20,000 or 30,000 men, while Grant has 90,000, and he infers that incalculable disaster will ensue.

And Meade is steadily advancing. Gen. Pickett, at Petersburg, has been ordered to send some of his troops north of Richmond, for the defense of the railroad in Hanover County.

Miss Stevenson, sister of Major-Gen. Stevenson, has written the President for employment in one of the departments. He referred it to Mr. Memminger, who indorsed on it, coldly, as usual, there were no vacancies, and a hundred applications. The President sent it to the Secretary of War. He will be more polite.

Another letter to-day from Mr. Memminger, requesting that a company, commanded by a son of his friend, Trenholm, of Charleston, be stationed at Ashville, where his family is staying.

Lieut.-Gen. D. H. Hill has applied for a copy of Gen. Bragg's letter asking his removal from his army. The President sends a copy to the Secretary, who will probably comply, and there may be a personal affair, for Bragg's strictures on Hill as a general were pretty severe.

There are rumors of a break in the cabinet, a majority, it is said, having been in favor of Bragg's removal.

Bragg's disaster so shocked my son Custis that, at dinner, when asked for rice, he poured water into his sister's plate, the pitcher being near.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2p. 105-6

Saturday, October 27, 2018

Captain Charles Wright Wills: May 28, 1864

May 28, 1864, 9 a. m.

Still in rifle pits. We have been treated to a terrific storm of shells, spherical case, and solid shot. The batteries are in plain sight of each other, and the gunners call it a thousand yards between them. I don't think either battery does very fine work, but they make it more than interesting for us. A conical shell from a 12 pound gun passed through a log and struck a Company C man on the leg, only bruising him. Two solid shot fell in my company works, but hurt no one.

Seven p. m.—Talk about fighting, etc., we've seen it this p. m. sure, of all the interesting and exciting times on record this must take the palm. At about 3:45 p. m., a heavy column of Rebels rose from a brush with a yell the devil ought to copyright, broke for and took three guns of the 1st Iowa Battery which were in front of the works (they never should have been placed there); the 6th Iowa boys, without orders, charged the Rebels, retook the battery and drove them back. They came down on our whole line, both ours and the 16th A. C, and for two hours attempted to drive us out. We repulsed them at every point without serious loss to us, but I believe they are at least 3,000 men short. In our brigade Colonel Dickerman, Lieutenant Colonel 6th Iowa commanding, and Major Gilsey, commanding 46th Ohio, are wounded. Besides these I don't think our brigade lost over So. It was a grand thing. I did not lose a man and only three companies of our regiment lost any. When the musketry was playing the hottest, Logan came dashing up along our line, waved his hat and told the boys to “give them hell, boys.” You should have heard them cheer him. It is Hardee's Corps fighting us, and he promised his men a “Chickamauga,” but it turned out a “Bull Run” on their part. It is the same corps our regiment fought at Mission Ridge. Our line is very thin along here, but guess we can save it now. I heard a 40th boy get off an oddity this evening, he said: “If they come again, I am going to yell if there's any danger of their taking us.” “Worlds by Nation Right into line Wheel!” and “if that don't scare them, I propose going.”

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 250-1

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Captain Charles Wright Wills: March 6, 1864

Scottsboro, Ala., March 6, 1864.

By marching 21 miles on the railroad ties we reached “home” yesterday, after an absence of 24 days, in which we traveled 280 miles. Altogether it was a very pleasant trip, although the first 10 nights were almost too cold for outdoor sleeping. I kept a “sort” of a diary of this trip in a memorandum book, and being too lazy to copy, tore out the leaves and mailed to you. You should receive three letters of that kind. One about the “Wills Valley” trip, one of the march from here to Cleveland, and the third of the trip from Cleveland to Dalton and back. The rain was pouring down when we received orders to start home from Chattanooga and it rained almost until night. We marched 16 miles without a rest, and did it in five hours. Did exactly the same thing next day, although it did not rain. This was from Oltewah to Chattanooga. In addition to this march I took a look over the part of Mission Ridge where our regiment fought, and also climbed Lookout mountain. The 103d, the brigade they were with, undoubtedly got the hottest part of the whole Lookout, and Mission Ridge fight. The nature of the ground was such that not a shot was fired by either side until they were within 200 yards of each other, when our men charged. Some of our boys were killed a little to the right of, but on a line with the Rebel guns. The trees and shrubs show marks of extraordinary hot musketry work. I cut a hickory walking stick right where our men commenced the charge. This hickory stood by an oak that I should think was hit by 400 musket and canister balls. It helped me later in the day to climb Lookout Mountain. I think the view from Lookout worth 1,000 miles travel. The high mountains of Western North Carolina, and the Blue Mountains of Virginia are very plainly seen from the summit. There is a summer retreat, some 40 or 50 nice houses with public hall and school on top.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 216-7

Saturday, March 24, 2018

Captain Charles Wright Wills: December 8, 1863

Mud Creek Cove, Jackson County, Ala.
December 8, 1863.

I was at Stevenson yesterday and put a letter in the office for you, but with my accustomed shrewdness failed to either stamp or frank it. It graphically described the gallant exploits of the detachment I have the honer to command during the past three weeks, and its loss will be deplored in common with the other heavy losses of this “cruel war.” I can now but give you the topics it discussed or elaborated, and leave to your imagination the finishing and stringing together the skeleton. First and foremost, stealing horses; second, defying bravely the tears and entreaties of helpless women, and taking their last measure of meal and rasher of bacon; third, the splendid conduct of our regiment and brigade at the late Mission Ridge fight; fourth, reflections. Do you remember, how, after the evacuation of Corinth one and one-half years ago, Halleck thought the rebellion virtually ended? And how many of the soldiers wrote home that they expected to be mustered out within three months? Then Halleck sent Buell with half of the army toward Chattanooga, Sherman and Hurlburt to Memphis, McClernand and Logan to Jackson, Tennessee; kept some four divisions at Corinth, and with three others opened and guarded 95 miles of railroad east to Decatur. That was what he called letting the army enjoy the rest they had earned by their glorious victory. The whole of the splendid army that had forced the Rebels to leave Corinth, was divided, subdivided and the subdivisions divided until, except Buell’s, there was hardly a detachment left strong enough to hold its own against any overgrown band of guerrillas. The result you know. Buell's retreat with his heavy losses of detachments at Munfordsville, etc., our evacuation of the M. & C. R. R. between Memphis and Corinth, the driving in of our guards from Decatur to Corinth, and the fight there in October which we gained only because our side weighed only one ounce the most; and finally they shut us up in Memphis, Bolivar, Corinth and Nashville so closely that foraging parties hardly dared venture ten miles from the siege guns, and there our army stayed until relieved by “500,000 more.” I don't like to slander so great and noble a man as Grant, by insinuating that he has any notion similar to Halleck’s, but what I have seen with my naked eye, and heard from good authority with my uncovered ears, makes me think he has in his opinion at the Lookout, Mission Ridge, Ringgold fight, bursted the rebellion to flinders. I know that Sherman with six divisions has gone to Knoxville. John E. Smith's and Osterhaus' divisions are at Bridgeport on their way to Huntsville or Decatur. Some 12 companies of artillery, (nearly enough for a corps) went to Nashville yesterday, and Hooker with the nth and 12th Corps, are going back to the Potomac. Does that sound anything like active forward movements? And don't it sound exactly like Halleck's disposition of the army after he got Corinth? I predict that no good will come from scattering the army in this way, and much harm. Bragg has fallen back to Dalton, only 25 or 30 miles from Chattanooga, and 15 less than Beauregard ran from Corinth. The Rebel cavalry are already driving in our foragers at Chattanooga. That's all I have to say about the matter. Our regiment, brigade and division have gone with Sherman to Burnside's relief. They are probably at Knoxville now. All accounts agree that the regiment behaved splendidly; and Fulton county ought to either disown her soldiers or quit disgracing them by her d-----sh copperheadism. You didn't have any fears for my safety when you heard of the fight, did you? Of course you knew I wouldn't be there. I heard three days before the fight that it would probably open Sunday or Monday. Tuesday I was out in the Cumberland mountains, near Paint Rock, some 50 miles from Chattanooga, when suddenly we heard the sound of cannonading. I thought of our regiment being in the fight and my company away, and cursed my luck to the best of my ability. I never expect to be in a battle. Being shot by a guerrilla is as good as I will probably get. It is strange that there was only the one vicinity in which we could hear the firing that day, and 25 miles nearer the scene of action they were unable to hear it. We are meeting with good success hunting horses. We only lack about 200 of having enough to mount the brigade and will have them by the time they get back from Knoxville. My men were never as healthy as now. My old convalescent “stand-bys” now walk into their double rations of fresh meat and corn pone tremendously, and do their share of duty splendidly. For four weeks we have had nothing to eat but corn bread and fresh pork. I am beginning to like it. It positively does taste better every day, and I destroy immense quantities. When reading about the elephant browsing upon the tree tops, did you ever imagine what an awful crashing he would make? That's about like the smash I make among the spareribs and hoecake. I thought that when they set me up as horse thief, that my measure was filled, that earth had nothing left too bitter for me to quaff or “chaw.” But last night a draught was put to my lips of which I drank, and lo, I am undone. Can't look an honest man in the face. Fortunately there are no honest men in this command, so I am spared the mortification of turning my eyes. I was sent out to steal sheep. Can't call taking aught from these poor miserable citizen devils here anything but stealing. I made a pretty good haul. They go to the front to-day; I expect for hospital use. Of course we have to take them, but these citizens are on the verge of bankruptcy as far as eating is concerned. Saw Bill and Davis Trites at Bridgeport two days since. All right. Had just got back with their division from Chattanooga. Were both well. Captain Walsh, who was killed, was one of the finest officers in our regiment. I had formed a strong attachment for him, and mourn his loss as a dear friend and splendid fellow. His company, in camp, joins mine on the left and we were more intimate than I was with any other officer in this command.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 202-5

Monday, June 13, 2016

Major Charles Fessenden Morse: November 28, 1863

Tullahoma, Tenn., November 28, 1863.

We are in the midst of exciting news from the front, yet we have had no particulars. It is evident, however, that we have taken several thousand prisoners and a large quantity of artillery.*

Since the fight at Wauhatchie, there has been no slurring of the Army of the Potomac men. That little affair was a great thing for us. By our own and rebel accounts, there is no doubt that our men fought most gallantly there against superior numbers of their old antagonists.

Every train that comes from the South brings a load of prisoners or wounded men, and rumors that fighting is still going on at the front. It seems to me, now, for the first time since the war began, that the rebellion is nearly crushed. They have not met with any very decisive success for nearly six months, and are now contracted into the smallest territory they have ever occupied.

Atlanta is our important point now; get that, and we have again cut the Confederacy in two, and in a vital place What a glorious thing it would be if we could wind up this rebellion before our original three years are out! It would exceed all my expectations to do this.

Thanksgiving Day was a very pleasant one, warm and bright as May. I took an escort of half a dozen cavalry and rode down to the regiment, which is about ten miles from here. I found them camped very comfortably just outside strong earthworks built to command the railroad bridge over the Elk river. Colonel Coggswell is in command of the post and has a battery in addition to his regiment. lie has made himself very strong, and could defend the place against a large force.

I took a very quiet dinner with the field and staff. Of course we could not help thinking of our other Thanksgiving Days in the regiment, and it brought up many sad memories. At our first dinner at Seneca, Maryland, all our old officers were present; last year there had been many changes, but there were still left a goodly number of the old stock, and we were knit closer together by our losses. This year I couldn't help a feeling of desolation as I remembered that, of all my friends in the regiment, very few were left. How little I thought, when we left Camp Andrews, that we should have such a sad experience!

In looking over his trunks for a photograph, Colonel Coggswell found a letter that had come for me while I was in Massachusetts; he gave it to me, and I found the address was in Bob Shaw's writing. You can imagine how glad I was to get it. I always thought it a little strange that he had not answered my last letter. I opened it the first chance I got. It was mostly a description of his movements to Darien and other places; but at the close he spoke in a very feeling way of our friendship and intimacy, and of his happiness since his marriage. It was written on the 3rd of July; in it he asked to be remembered to Robeson, Mudge, and Tom Fox; little did he think that, at the moment he wrote, one of them was lying dead on the field of battle, and the other two suffering with mortal wounds.

The men of the regiment had a very pleasant day; they had plenty of geese and turkeys for dinner, and in the evening the brigade band came down from Tullahoma, and gave them some music. I am glad that our men have each been able to keep this day somewhat as if they had been at home.

I stayed next morning and saw guard mounting done as it is done nowhere else, and then rode back here again.
_______________

* The battles of Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain.

SOURCE: Charles Fessenden Morse, Letters Written During the Civil War, 1861-1865, p. 158-60

Monday, June 6, 2016

Diary of Dolly Lunt Burge: July 22, 1864

[The day of the battle of Atlanta]

We have heard the loud booming of cannon all day. Mr. Ward [the overseer] went over to the burial of Thomas Harwell, whose death I witnessed yesterday. They had but just gone when the Rev. A. Turner, wife, and daughter drove up with their wagons, desiring to rest awhile. They went into the ell [a large back room] and lay down, I following them, wishing to enjoy their company. Suddenly I saw the servants running to the palings, and I walked to the door, when I saw such a stampede as I never witnessed before. The road was full of carriages, wagons, men on horseback, all riding at full speed. Judge Floyd stopped, saying: “Mrs. Burge, the Yankees are coming. They have got my family, and here is all I have upon earth. Hide your mules and carriages and whatever valuables you have.”

Sadai [Mrs. Surge's nine-year-old daughter] said:

“Oh, Mama, what shall we do?”

“Never mind, Sadai,” I said. “They won't hurt you, and you must help me hide my things.”

I went to the smoke-house, divided out the meat to the servants, and bid them hide it. Julia [a slave] took a jar of lard and buried it. In the meantime Sadai was taking down and picking up our clothes, which she was giving to the servants to hide in their cabins; silk dresses, challis, muslins, and merinos, linens, and hosiery, all found their way into the chests of the women and under their beds; china and silver were buried underground, and Sadai bid Mary [a slave] hide a bit of soap under some bricks, that mama might have a little left. Then she came to me with a part of a loaf of bread, asking if she had not better put it in her pocket, that we might have something to eat that night. And, verily, we had cause to fear that we might be homeless, for on every side we could see smoke arising from burning buildings and bridges.

Major Ansley, who was wounded in the hip in the battle of Missionary Ridge, and has not recovered, came with his wife, sister, two little ones, and servants. He was traveling in a bed in a small wagon. They had thought to get to Eatonton, but he was so wearied that they stopped with me for the night. I am glad to have them. I shall sleep none to-night. The woods are full of refugees.

SOURCE: Dolly Lunt Burge, A Woman's Wartime Journal, p. 4-6

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

General Joseph E. Johnston to Senator Louis T. Wigfall, January 4, 1864

Dalton, Jan. 4th, 1864.
My dear Wigfall:

It is necessary to recruit this army promptly to enable it to hold its ground against Grant's forces. Remember that it was unable to move forward even before it had been weakened by the defeat of Missionary Ridge, and Longstreet's march into East Tennessee, and the enemy strengthened by his victory and 25,000 men brought from Mississippi by Sherman.

I propose to substitute slaves for all soldiers employed out of the ranks — on detached service, extra duty, as cooks, engineers, laborers, pioneers, or any kind of work. Such details for this little army amount to more than 10,000 men. Negroes would serve for such purposes, better than soldiers. The impressment of negroes has been practised ever since the War commenced — but we have never been able to keep the impressed negroes with an army near the enemy. They desert. If you can devise and pass a law to enable us to hold slaves or other negroes with armies, this one can, in a few weeks, be increased by the number given above — of soldiers — not conscripts. Is not this worth trying? We require promptness here and this is the only prompt way of sending us soldiers. The proposed modifications of the conscript law are good, but then operations cannot help us in the present emergency. The plan is simple and quick. It puts soldiers and negroes each in his appropriate place; the one to fight, the other to work. I need not go into particulars in this matter. You understand it as well as I. Now do apply your energy and zeal to it. There is no other mode by which this army can be recruited before spring—and there is no other so good as this. Speak to General Sparrow and Mr. Miles for me on this subject. I would write to them both but am so pressed for time as to be unable to do so.

As ever yours,
J. E. Johnston.

SOURCE: Louise Wigfall Wright, A Southern Girl in ’61, p. 168-9

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut: November 30, 1863 – Second Entry

Anxiety pervades.  Lee is fighting Meade.  Misery is everywhere.  Bragg is falling back before Grant.1  Longstreet, the soldiers call him Peter the Slow, is settling down before Knoxville.

General Lee requires us to answer every letter, said Mr. Venable, and to do our best to console the poor creatures whose husbands and sons are fighting the battles of the country.
_______________

1 The siege of Chattanooga, which had been begun on September 21st, closed late in November, 1863, the final engagements beginning on November 23d, and ending on November 25th. Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge were the closing incidents of the siege. Grant, Sherman, and Hooker were conspicuous on the Federal side and Bragg and Longstreet on the Confederate.

SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 258-9

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Review: The Chattanooga Campaign

Edited by Steven E. Woodworth & Charles D. Grear

Sometimes an event is so complex that a single narrative explaining what happed or a single viewpoint from which to view the event is not the best way to tell its story.  The Chattanooga Campaign and the battles which it encapsules, is just that kind of event.

Following its defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga on September 20, 1863 the Union Army of the Cumberland, commanded by Major General William S. Rosecrans, retreated northward to Chattanooga, Tennessee.  Shortly thereafter Confederate General Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee besieged the vital rail-hub that was considered to be the gateway to the South.  When Ulysses S. Grant relieved Rosecrans and assumed command of the Army of the Cumberland he determined to break the siege and open the way to Atlanta.

“The Chattanooga Campaign,” edited by Steven E. Woodworth and Charles D. Grear, tells the complicated story of the campaign and its simultaneous, but separate, battles on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. The story of the campaign is told in ten chapters:

  • A Perfect Storm of Ineffectiveness: The Corps and the Loss of Lookout Mountain, by Alex Mendoza.
  • “Lookout Mountain Frowned Down Upon Us”: The Union Army and the Struggle for Lookout Valley, by Stewart Bennett.
  • “The Very Ground Seemed Alive”: Sherman’s Assault on the North End of Missionary Ridge, by Steven E. Woodworth.
  • Baptizing the Hills and Valleys: Cleburne’s Defense of Tunnel Hill, by John R. Lundberg.
  • What Happened on Orchard Knob?: Ordering the Attack on Missionary Ridge, by Brooks Simpson.
  • This Grand and Imposing Array of Brave Men: The Capture of Rossville Gap and the Defeat of the Confederate Left by Sam Davis Elliott.
  • Saving the Army of the Tennessee: The Confederate Rear Guard at Ringgold Gap, by Justin S. Solonick.
  • From the Chickamauga with “Old Rosy” to Missionary Ridge with Grant: The Fall 1863 Struggle for Chattanooga and the Press, by Ethan S. Rafuse.
  • “What I am Doing I do not Consider Desertion”: Trans-Mississippian Reactions to Chickamauga and Chattanooga, by Charles D. Grear.
  • A Chattanooga Plan: The Gateway City’s Critical Role in Civil War Battlefield Preservaiton, by Timothy Smith.


Two of the best chapters in the book are “What Happened on Orchard Knob” by Brooks Simpson which gives a very detailed explanation of who did, or rather who did not, order the charge on Missionary Ridge.  And second, “What I am doing I do not Consider Desertion,” by the books co-editer, Charles D. Grear, which discusses the emotional toll, and consequences, of the battles of Chickamauga and Chattanooga on the Confederate forces in the Trans-Mississippi theater of war.

With its ten chapters written by ten authors “The Chattanooga Campaign,” complete with maps and photographs, at once gives you a breakdown of the various stages and battles of the campaign, and the differing perspectives and approaches made by its authors gives its reader a more comprehensive, 360° view of it, and to a smaller degree the war in the West.

ISBN 978-0809331192, The Southern Illinois University Press, © 2012, Hardcover, 256 pages, Maps, Photographs, Illustrations, Notes & Index. $29.95.  To Purchase this book click HERE.

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Samuel H. M. Byers

SAMUEL H. M. BYERS was born in Pulaski, Pennsylvania, in 1838. Coming to Iowa in 1851 with his father he was educated in the schools of Oskaloosa, where his father located. He enlisted in the Fifth Iowa Infantry and served in the army until March, 1865, was promoted to adjutant in April, 1863. He was in many battles and in a charge at Missionary Ridge was taken prisoner and for fifteen months suffered the horrors of Libby and other Confederate prisons. He finally escaped and returned to the army, where for a time he was on General Sherman’s staff. At the close of the war he was brevetted major. While in prison at Columbia, South Carolina, he wrote the well-known song, “The March to the Sea,” which brought him into national notice. It gave the name to Sherman’s famous march and thousands of copies were sold immediately after the war. Major Byers was sent by General Sherman to General Grant and President Lincoln as bearer of dispatches announcing his great victories. He served fifteen years as American consul at Zürich in Switzerland and was under President Arthur, Consul General for Italy. Under President Harrison he served as Consul to St. Gall and later as Consul General for Switzerland. Major Byers has been a contributor to the leading magazines of the country. He is the author of “Iowa in War Times,” “Switzerland and the Swiss,” “Twenty Years in Europe” and several volumes of poetry.

Benjamin F. Gue, History of Iowa From The Earliest Times To The Beginning Of The Twentieth Century, Vol. 4, p. 36

Friday, March 22, 2013

Major General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, December 29, 1863

LANCASTER, OHIO, Dec. 29, 1863.

My Dear Brother:

 . . . I hear you have gone on to New York, and therefore I must go off without seeing you. I have been off the line of communication since leaving Memphis, save a few hours at Bridgeport, during which I had hardly time to put my official signature to papers demanding my hand. I have made a report of our movements up to the return to Bridgeport and enclose it with this, a copy which I brought here, and which you may keep, only, of course, under the confidence of absolute secrecy until the War Department thinks proper to make the original public. . . .

I suppose you will read this report, and I invite attention to the part referring to the assault on Tunnel Hill. I know that Grant in his report will dwell on this same part. I was provoked that Meigs, looking at us from Chattanooga, should report me repulsed, and that Mr. Stanton should publish his letter as semi-official. Meigs apologized to me for using Thomas's name instead of mine throughout, which he charged to a copyist, but made no amends for the repulse. The whole philosophy of the battle was that I should get, by a dash, a position on the extremity of the Missionary Ridge, from which the enemy would be forced to drive me, or allow his depot at Chickamauga station to be in danger. I expected Bragg to attack me at daylight, but he did not, and to bring matters to a crisis quickly, as time was precious, for the sake of Burnside in East Tennessee, Grant ordered me to assume the offensive. My report contains the rest. Again, after the battle, Granger was ordered to push for Knoxville, but his movements were so slow that Grant, impatient, called on me, and my move was the most rapid of the war and perfectly successful. I could have gone on after Longstreet, but Burnside ranked me, and it was his business, not mine. So I reinforced him all he asked, and returned.

The Fifteenth Corps, now Logan's, and Dodge's division of the Sixteenth Corps are now at work on the railroad from Nashville to Decatur, and from Decatur to Stevenson, thus making a triangle of railroad which it is estimated will relieve the great difficulty of supplies which has paralyzed the Army of the Cumberland. This will take five weeks. I leave my headquarters at Huntsville, and go in person down the Mississippi to strike some lateral blows, to punish the country for allowing guerillas to attack the boats. I go on Friday to Cincinnati, and thence to Cairo, where with Admiral Porter I will concert measures to produce the result. I expect to send one expedition up the Yazoo, and go myself with another up Red River, levying contributions to make good losses to boats, and punish for deaths and wounds inflicted. I think we can make people feel that they must actually prevent guerillas from carrying out their threats that though we have the river, it will do us no good. My address will be Memphis, for a month, and Huntsville after. We can hardly fashion out the next campaign, but it looks as though we should have to move from the Tennessee River. I should prefer to take Mobile and the Alabama as well as the Chattahoochee, and move east from Montgomery and Columbus, Miss.

I wish you would introduce a bill in Congress increasing the number of cadets on this basis — one from each congressional district per annum. In districts not represented, vest the appointments in the Secretary of War out of boys not over eighteen in the armies in the field, to be selected in any manner that may be prescribed by law, or by the regulation of the President. This would hold out to young fellows the prospect of getting a cadetship. Last summer we were called on to recommend candidates, and I was amazed to find so many worthy applicants. All who came forward for examination preferred West Point to a commission. The great want of the army is good subordinate officers. The army is a good school, but West Point is better. It is useless to deny that a special preliminary education is necessary to the military officers, and the cheapest school is now at West Point and is susceptible of infinite increase. . . .

I think the President's proclamation unwise. Knowing the temper of the South, I know that it but protracts the war by seeming to court peace. It to them looks like weakness. I tell them that as they cool off, we warm to the work. That we are just getting ready for the war, and I know the effect is better than to coax them to come back into the Union. The organization of a Civil Government but complicates the game. All the Southern States will need a pure military Government for years after resistance has ceased. You have noticed the debate in Richmond, on the President's proclamation. That is a true exhibit of the feeling South. Don't fall into the error that the masses think differently. Of course property-holding classes South deplore the devastation that marks the progress of their own and our armies, but the South is no longer consulted. The Army of the Confederacy is the South, and they still hope to worry us out. The moment we relax, they gain strength and confidence. We must hammer away and show such resistance, such bottom that even that slender hope will fail them.

I still am opposed to all bounties. The draft pure and simple, annual, to fill vacancies in the ranks. Pay of men in the front increased to even forty dollars a month, and that of men at depots and to the rear diminished to a bare maintenance if not less. Four hundred dollars bounty is an absurd commentary where two-thirds draw bounty and remain absent from their rank and are discharged for disability without hearing a shot. Deal with the army as you would if you were hiring men for special work. Pay those who do the work high; those who are sick, unfortunate, or shirking, pay little or nothing. The same of officers from the major-general to lieutenant. The President must make vacancies for the rising officers, the "creations" of the war. I am willing to quit if a younger and better man can be found for my place. . . .

Your affectionate brother,
W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 216-9

Friday, November 16, 2012

Major General Ulysses S. Grant to Congressman Elihu B. Washburne, December 2, 1863

Chattanooga, Tennessee,
December 2, 1863.

FOR the last three weeks I have not only been busy, but have had company occupying my room, making it almost impossible for me to write anything. Last week was a stirring time with us, and a magnificent victory was won. I am sorry you could not be here. The spectacle was grand beyond anything that has been or is likely to be on this continent. It is the first battlefield I have ever seen where a plan could be followed and from one place the whole field be within one view. At the commencement the battle line was fifteen miles long. Hooker on our right soon carried the point of Lookout Mountain, and Sherman the north end of Missionary Ridge, thus shortening the line by five or six miles and bringing the whole within one view. Our troops behaved most magnificently, and have inflicted on the enemy the heaviest blow they have received during the war. . . 11
__________

11 “After having broken the impedimenta which closed the passage of the Mississippi, it is again Grant,” writes the Count of Paris of the victory at Chattanooga, “who has just opened the doors of Georgia.  The Federal armies have at last found the warrior worthy to lead them. The bold and skilful manoeuvres which began in the valley of Lookout Mountain, and terminated a month later near the spot where Bragg and Davis had contemplated a Union army besieged at their feet, enhance the glory of the conqueror of Vicksburg. He has proved that his mind, powerful to conceive, firm to execute, is fertile in resources at the critical time.”

SOURCE: James Grant Wilson, Editor, General Grant’s Letters to a Friend 1861-1880, p. 31, 115-6

Monday, January 17, 2011

John Whitten

JOHN WHITTEN was born at Business Corner, Van Buren county, Iowa, Aug. 1, 1842; he died at Farmington, Iowa, Sept. 7,1902. He remained at home with his parents until the breaking out of the civil war, when he enlisted in company H, 15th Iowa Infantry. Not long after his muster into the service he was detailed as one of the color guard. He succeeded the color bearer who was shot down at the battle of Missionary Ridge, where his whole regiment was captured. With his comrades he was marched to Andersonville prison, where he suffered untold tortures from starvation, vermin, scurvy, and filth. After his liberation he was discharged, having been in the army four years and seven months. He served his county two terms as auditor, and was deputy state treasurer of Iowa for three terms, also holding many other positions of honor and trust, in all of which be proved himself competent and thoroughly trustworthy. His funeral took place at Farmington, Iowa, Sept. 8. His remains were borne to the cemetery by the members of the G. A. R., who buried him with the honors of the order.

SOURCE: Annals Of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 5 No. 7, October 1902, p. 558-9

Thursday, May 13, 2010

David Andrew Griffith, Sgt., 11th Ohio Infantry

D. A. GRIFFITH - The retired farmers living in Winterset are highly esteemed and contribute not a little to the advancement of the community. Among them is D. A. Griffith, who was born in Holmes county, Ohio, on the 15th of April, 1841, a son of Isaac and Margaret (Archibald) Griffith, the former born upon the ocean in 1808 while his parents were crossing to this country from Wales and the latter born in Jefferson county, Ohio, in 1816. Isaac Griffith was a miller and shoemaker and followed those trades in Holmes county, Ohio. In 1843 he removed to Portsmouth, Ohio, where he ran a mill until he removed to Scioto county, that state, which was his home for ten years before his death. He died in 1848 and was survived by his wife for three years.

D. A. Griffith at the usual age entered the city schools of Portsmouth, Ohio, and there laid the foundation of his education. When he was eleven years of age, however, his parents died and he was taken by a family who mistreated him and he accordingly ran away. He became a farm hand and thus provided for his support and was so engaged until the outbreak of the Civil war. On the I5th of April, 1861, he enlisted in Company C, Thirteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry under Captain Dan Parnell. The command rendezvoused at Columbus, Ohio, and Mr. Griffith was made first duty sergeant. After being three months with Company C he was transferred to Company D, of the Eleventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry and served as sergeant in that command for a year, after which he was made first lieutenant. He was under fire in Virginia, at the battle of Charleston, Maryland, at Bull Run, Antietam, South Mountain, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge and the siege of Chattanooga and accompanied Sherman on the memorable march to the sea. He was wounded by a bayonet thrust at South Mountain, Maryland, and lost his hearing at the battle of Antietam, as his regiment was for hours in the midst of eight hundred pieces of artillery. His regiment, which in that engagement lost five hundred men, together with the Eighteenth Pennsylvania, charged the Burnside bridge and took it. Colonel Coleman, who led the charge, fell pierced by seven bullets. Lieutenant Griffith succeeded in capturing some rebel cannon and his record throughout the war proved him a fearless and an able officer. He has a medal presented him by the state of Ohio for continuous and meritorious service. He was mustered out on the 3d of July, 1865, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and later in that year removed to Fairfield, Iowa.

In 1870 he came to Madison county and began farming in Jefferson township, where he lived for five years. At the end of that time he removed to Union township and engaged in agricultural pursuits there until 1893. In that year he purchased two hundred acres of land in Douglas township on North river and gave his time and attention to the operation of that farm. He was very successful in all that he attempted, his energy, determination and knowledge of the best methods of agriculture making him one of the leading farmers in his township.

On the 4th of March, 1866, Mr. Griffith was united in marriage to Miss Hester E. Miller, who was born in Brown county, Ohio, December 27, 1847, a daughter of Henry and Elizabeth (Hillis) [sic] Miller. Her father was born in Germany in 1822 and upon emigrating to this country settled in Cincinnati, where he followed the blacksmith's trade until his health failed. He then removed to Brown county, Ohio, which remained his home until 1865. In that year he migrated westward and settled in Jefferson county, Iowa, near Fairfield. Nine years later he homesteaded land in Buena Vista county, where his death occurred in 1875. His wife, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1820, passed away in Buena Vista county in 1904, having survived him for almost three decades.

Mr. and Mrs. Griffith are the parents of seven children: Anna B. gave her hand in marriage to Elias Van Scoy, of Logan county, Colorado, by whom she has four children. U. Grant, who was born May 7, 1868, died January 20, 1907. Isaac, born on the 5th of September, 1869, is a well-to-do farmer who is married and has three children, David A., Winifred and Hester. Jerome is represented elsewhere in this work. David T., whose birth occurred on the11th of July, 1879, is engaged in the implement business at Van Meter, Iowa. Linnie E., born November11, 1880, passed away February 4, 1890. Robert S. was born on the 16th of October, 1888.

Mr. Griffith is identified with the republican party and has always been as true to the best interests of his country in times of peace as he was when he led his command upon the battlefields of the south. None begrudges him the competence and the leisure which are now his, as they were won by industry and sound judgment.

SOURCE: History of Madison County Iowa and Its People, Volume 2, p. 285-7


NOTE: According to the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System, David A. Griffith of Companies D & H, mustered in as a private and out as a sergeant. David A. Griffith is listed on page 148 of J. H. Horton & Solomon Teverbaugh’s A History of the Eleventh Regiment (Ohio Volunteer Infantry) as “an original member; promoted to Sergeant; veteranized, and was left at Chattanooga.”

Monday, March 15, 2010

Seventeenth Regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry

The ten companies composing the Seventeenth Iowa Infantry were ordered into, quarters at Keokuk, Iowa, between the dates January 25 and March 14, 1862, and were there mustered into the service of the United States by Lieutenant Charles J. Ball, United States Army, between the dates March 21 and April 16, 1862. The original roster of the regiment shows that it had an aggregate strength of 897 when the last company was mustered, and that additional enlistments of 61 men gave it an aggregate of 958, rank and file, before it left the state.

On the 19th of April, 1862, the regiment left its rendezvous at Keokuk and was conveyed by steamer to St. Louis, Mo., arriving there on the 20th and going into quarters at Benton Barracks, where it was provided with arms and the necessary equipage for active service in the field. With but little opportunity for drill and instruction it was hurried to the front, leaving St. Louis May 5th and proceeding by steamer to Hamburg Landing, Tenn., where it disembarked and marched to join the army then engaged in the siege of Corinth, Miss. The regiment participated in the siege operations until May 30th, on which date Corinth was evacuated, and then joined in the pursuit of the enemy. When the pursuit was abandoned, it returned to Corinth and, during the remainder of the summer, was engaged in perfecting itself in drill and discipline, and in watching the movements of the enemy, evidently making preparations to recover possession of Corinth and to drive the Union army out of the State.

On the 18th of September, 1862, the regiment marched in the direction of Iuka, Miss., and on the 19th became engaged in the desperate battle which was fought there. In this, its first battle, the regiment was subjected to an experience never repeated in its subsequent splendid service. The official report of the conduct of the regiment in the battle of Iuka was written by Captain John L. Young [see note 1]. He describes the position occupied at the commencement of the engagement; states that an order was given which one-half the regiment failed to hear and which resulted in separating the right from the left wing, just as the regiment came under the fire of the enemy. This was a critical situation for both men and officers who had never been under fire, and one which demanded the most prompt, capable and energetic leadership. But one of the field officers (Colonel Rankin) was present for duty, and he was disabled by having his horse shot under him early in the engagement, plunging him against a tree and rendering him incapable of remaining in command of the regiment. Captain S. M. Archer then assumed command, but he soon fell, severely wounded. The command then devolved upon Captain Young, who was with the right wing and who urged the men to maintain their position under the heavy fire of the enemy, which they did for a time, even advancing toward the rebel line. The following brief extracts from his official report will show that the Captain and the subordinate officers who were with him made a gallant effort to stem the tide of battle:

. . . About the time I mention as having lost sight of Colonel Rankin our men retreated without any command, which caused great confusion. They had not proceeded far to the rear, however, until I succeeded in rallying them, and got them back to about where our line was first formed. ... I then went to near the right of the right wing and urged the men forward. "We had proceeded but a short distance when a tremendous volley from the enemy caused a panic in the battalion, and with all my efforts and assisted by Captain D. A Craig (who was the only Captain I saw after Colonel Rankin left the field) could not rally them until they had retreated almost to the road near the old log church. I here succeeded in stopping them, got a line partly formed and marched them forward. By the time I had got them to our former line, I had, I should think, about 300 men, consisting of the right wing of our regiment and stragglers from the Fifth Iowa, Eleventh Missouri, Fourth Minnesota, Thirty-ninth Ohio and some others. I now held them near where our first line was formed for about three-quarters of an hour . . . .


Captain Young then proceeds to describe in detail the movements which followed, to the close of the battle. He shows that, owing to the blunder of some one higher in command, the men under his command were subjected to the fire of both Union and rebel troops, which caused another panic and retreat. He succeeded, however, in again rallying the men and keeping them in line until the retreat was sounded. In closing his report Captain Young says:

It may be that the foregoing would not add much to the reputation of a regiment, but this I cannot avoid. I give you a simple statement of the facts that came under my own observation, hoping to be able to give a better account of the Seventeenth Iowa in the next engagement. It is due to Captain Craig, company H; Lieutenants Garrett and Johnson of company A; Lieutenants Rice and Snodgrass of company I; Lieutenant Hull, company E; Lieutenant Morris, company F; Lieutenant Stapleton, company C, and one or two others, probably, who were with me through the entire engagement, to say that they acted in a very brave and unflinching manner and deserve great credit. I do not wish either to be understood as casting any insinuations upon any officer in the regiment, but I only mention those whom I saw in the engagement.


Brigadier General J. C. Sullivan, who commanded the brigade to which the Seventeenth Iowa was attached, says in his official report: "The Seventeenth Iowa Regiment was without a field officer, and Captain Archer, the senior Captain, soon fell, severely wounded, when Captain Young assumed command and did his duty nobly [see note 2]." There is nowhere a word of censure of the Seventeenth Iowa in the Brigade Commander's report. The unfortunate situation in which the regiment was placed, — without a field officer, its senior Captain disabled by a severe wound at the very beginning of the engagement, the regiment separated just as it came under the fire of the enemy, its officers unskilled in war and sorely in need of a full complement of field officers to lead and direct them, — these facts were well known to the Brigade Commander and led him to overlook the failure of the regiment to measure up to the high standard of excellence of which he well knew they would prove themselves capable under more fortunate conditions. Major General Rosecrans, however, considered it his duty to administer a severe reprimand to the regiment [see note 3] He was soon to have an opportunity to do an act of justice in commending the bravery of the officers and men of the Seventeenth Iowa, and in that order it will be observed that, in again referring to the conduct of the regiment at Iuka, he uses the fitting word "misfortune" instead of the harsh and unjust terms contained in his previous order. At the conclusion of Brigadier General Sullivan's report of the conduct of his brigade in the battle of Iuka, he makes the following statement: "I enclose reports received from commanding officers of regiments, together with a list of the killed, wounded and missing of my brigade. The regiments of my brigade engaged were: Tenth Iowa, Colonel Perczel; Seventeenth Iowa, Captain Archer; Eightieth Ohio, Colonel Bartilson, and one section of the Twelfth Wisconsin Battery, commanded by Lieutenant Immell.” [See note 4.]

The tabulated returns of casualties, by regiments, and the aggregate loss of the brigade, show that the Seventeenth Iowa sustained a loss greater than that of all the other regiments of the brigade combined [see note 5]. In his history of the regiment, Colonel Clark R. Wever, referring to its conduct in the battle of Iuka, makes the following statement: "In this our first real battle, considering the stupidity, mismanagement and confusion which characterized the greater part of the engagement, the regiment conducted itself in a manner of which all engaged feel as truly proud as of any subsequent engagement, notwithstanding the opprobrium cast upon it in orders announcing the results of the battle." [See note 6.]

The loss of the regiment at Iuka was one officer and three enlisted men killed, three officers and thirty-five enlisted men wounded, and four enlisted men missing in action, a total loss of 46, while the entire loss of the brigade was but 86. That the officers and men of the Seventeenth Iowa acquitted themselves well in this battle — when the facts, as shown, are taken into consideration — must be conceded.

Darkness put an end to the conflict at Iuka and, during the night, the enemy retired from the field, thus admitting defeat. The rebel general had not abandoned his intention to make another desperate attempt to regain possession of Corinth, notwithstanding his failure at Iuka. The concentration and movements of his army indicated his purpose to renew the struggle, and the Union troops were concentrated in the vicinity of Corinth, where they awaited the impending conflict. The Seventeenth Iowa, with the Second Brigade, Third Division, Army of the Mississippi, (the same command with which it had fought at Iuka,) lay in camp at Corinth on the morning of October 3, 1862. Early that morning Captain John L. Young, who was in command of the regiment, received an order from Brigadier General Sullivan, the brigade commander, to move his regiment towards the north to meet the enemy, reported to be advancing from that direction. While this order was being executed, Major Jabez Banbury, of the Fifth Iowa Infantry, was ordered by General Hamilton (commanding the Division) to take command of the regiment. Limitation of space will not permit the reproduction of Major Banbury's official report in full, but the following extracts will serve to show the splendid conduct of the regiment in the two days' battle of Corinth [see note 7]:

HEADQUARTERS SEVENTEENTH IOWA INFANTRY VOLUNTEERS,
CAMP AT HATCHIE CHURCH, MISS., Oct. 9, 1862.

GENERAL: As directed by order of General Hamilton, I took command of the Seventeenth Iowa on the morning of the 3d instant, after the regiment had been marched about one-half mile north of Corinth by Captain Young. About 7 A. M. we were moved with the rest of the brigade to the breastworks two, miles north of town, and after changing position, company A, at about 2 o'clock, under command of First Lieutenant Garrett, was thrown out about three-fourths of a mile as skirmishers, and was engaged in a brisk skirmish of about an hour, during which time it did good service, leaving quite a number of dead rebels on the ground. Company B was also deployed as skirmishers in front of our regiment, and while out the regiment changed position, and it did not get to the regiment until the next day, after the battle on Saturday was over. This company under command of Second Lieutenant Hull, of company E, deserves great credit for the brave and unflinching manner in which it held its perilous situation until relieved. About 4:30 o'clock this regiment was placed on the extreme right of the brigade and ordered forward in line of, battle, and after marching about half a mile we were met with heavy fire from the enemy's batteries, which we found were not more than 100 yards in our advance. We also found the enemy in large force, supporting their batteries, which were three in number, and finding we were now some distance from the brigade and entirely unsupported, the enemy also having commenced a flank movement to our right, we fell back to the road and there joined the balance of the brigade. . . .


The Major describes in detail the further movements of the regiment on the firing line and in support of a battery, until the brigade was ordered inside the-fortifications, where the regiment was assigned to the duty of supporting batteries during most of the night. At an early hour on the morning of the 4th it again advanced in line of battle with the brigade, but, after proceeding some distance, was ordered to return and was given a new position on the defensive line. After taking this position, Major Banbury describes the part taken by the regiment during the remainder of the battle, as follows:

I remained in this position but a short time when I was ordered forward, just as the troops on our right were falling back quite fast, and with the balance of our brigade I marched the regiment forward to the brow of the hill, firing and driving the enemy before us. After firing and driving the enemy for probably twenty minutes, we were ordered to charge, which we did, taking quite a number of prisoners and capturing a rebel flag from the Fortieth Mississippi regiment. Corporal King, of Company G, was the first to, lay hands on the rebel colors and took the bearer prisoner and brought him to the rear of our lines.

I cannot speak in too high terms of praise of both officers and men throughout the regiment. Not a man in the entire regiment evinced the slightest inclination to shirk or fall back, and all, without a single exception, stood up to the work nobly and with an apparent determination to drive the rebels back at all hazards.

As the regiment was under your immediate observation during the entire engagement, I do not deem it necessary to mention any as deserving more mention, but will leave it for you to say whether any are entitled to more praise than that already received by this report.

I am, General, your obedient servant,

J. BANBURY., Major,
Fifth, Commanding Seventeenth Iowa Infantry.

BRIGADIER GENERAL SULLIVAN,
Commanding Second Brigade, Third Division, Army of the Mississippi.


The following order was issued by General Rosecrans, commending the conduct of the regiment in the battle of Corinth and, to some extent, mitigating his harsh and unjust reprimand upon its conduct at Iuka [see note 8]:


General Orders No. 145.

Headquarters Army of the Mississippi,
Third Div., Dist. of West Tennessee.
Corinth, Miss., Oct. 23, 1862.

The General commanding cannot forbear to give pleasure to many, besides the brave men immediately concerned, by announcing, in advance of the regular orders, that the Seventeenth Iowa Infantry, by its gallantry in the battle of Corinth, on the 4th of October, charging the enemy and capturing the flag of the Fortieth Mississippi, has amply atoned for its misfortune at Iuka, and stands among the honored regiments of his command. Long may they wear with unceasing brightness the honors they have won.

By order of MAJOR GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS,

C. GODDARD, First Lieut. Twelfth Infty.
Ohio Vols., Actg. Asst. Adjt. Gen.


The loss of the regiment at Corinth was 25 killed [see note 9] and wounded, but, until the last of the engagement, it was protected by breastworks and was able to inflict heavy loss upon the enemy with comparatively light loss to itself. Thus far it had lost 71 men in battle.

The regiment participated in the pursuit of the retreating rebel army for several days, when it was ordered to return to Corinth, remaining there until November 2d, when it started with its brigade and division on the great Mississippi Central Expedition, which General Grant had organized with Vicksburg as his objective point, and which penetrated far towards the southern border of the State, but was finally compelled to turn back on acount of the raid of a large force of rebel cavalry which destroyed the immense stores of supplies which had been accumulated at Holly Springs, Miss. The return march of the Union troops was marked by great suffering on account of insufficient rations and forced marches. The Seventeenth Iowa bore its full share of the hardships of this expedition.

On the 26th of December, the regiment with its brigade and division started from Holly Springs as a guard to 625 wagons, with which they proceeded to Memphis, loaded the wagons with provisions and returned as far as Collierville, Tenn., where they were relieved by other troops who took charge of the wagon train and guarded it back to the famishing army in the rear. Until February 8th, the regiment was engaged in guarding the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. It then marched to Memphis and, on March 2d, embarked on steamer and proceeded to Grand Lake, La. On March 8th it again embarked and was conveyed to Helena, Ark.

Its next expedition — a most difficult and arduous one, conducted on steamboats—was through the tortuous windings of Yazoo Pass and on through the Coldwater and Tallahatchie rivers to the vicinity of Fort Pemberton. General Grant then changed the plan of his campaign and the regiment was ordered to return to Helena, where it remained until April 17th, when it again embarked and was conveyed down the river to Milliken's Bend, where it landed on the 26th and took up the line of march for Grand Gulf, where it crossed the river on gun boats and moved rapidly to the front. It arrived at Port Gibson just at the close of the engagement there and pursued the retreating rebels to Black River.

The Vicksburg campaign was now fairly under way and battles were frequent. The Seventeenth Iowa had been engaged in several skirmishes but did not meet the enemy in force until May 12th, when it participated in the last of the fighting at Raymond and joined in the pursuit of the enemy. May 14th the regiment engaged the enemy at Jackson and, during the battle, executed a brilliant charge with fixed bayonets. Colonel D. B. Hillis commanded the regiment during this battle and wrote the official report. After describing the different positions his command occupied and its steadiness and good conduct as it advanced under the heavy fire of the enemy, Colonel Hillis thus describes the manner in which the enemy was dislodged from the ravine in his front and the capture of the fort [see note 10]:

You then ordered me to take the ravine, which I did by a bayonet charge at a double quick, breaking the enemy's lines, and pressing him up and over the crest of the next hill. Having reached this crest I ordered the regiment to cease firing, and commanded a halt. After having rested here some twenty minutes or more, I was ordered by you to throw forward one company in front of my line as skirmishers at a double quick to investigate the brush and woods in advance. This duty I intrusted to Company H, (Captain Craig) which they did skillfully, discovering no enemy, as he had fled in great confusion, abandoning his position, camp and fort, (containing four pieces of artillery,) which the captain entered, took possession of, and held until ordered into Jackson by General McPherson. The Captain, therefore, claims the honor of having first entered the works and taken possession of the guns. . . .


Colonel Hillis concludes his report as follows:

I went into the action with three hundred and fifty (350) men, and lost during the engagement 16 killed, 60 wounded, 3 missing and one disabled by a shell, making an aggregate of 80 men, or 23 per cent of my command. ... I cannot speak in too high terms of praise of the gallantry and zeal displayed by the entire command. So well did all do their part that none are deserving of special mention, unless it be Captain L. W. Houston, who, while suffering from a very painful and severe wound through his left fore-arm, and away from all assistance, seized a gun from one of three rebels, and brought the three into the hospital; and to, Lieutenant Colonel Wever, Captain Walden [see note 11] (who commanded the left wing, and had his horse shot under him,) and Adjutant F. Woolsey, to all of whom I am indebted for their coolness and assistance, and take pleasure in commending them.


The regiment had again demonstrated the fact that it had no superior among the volunteer organizations from Iowa or any other State, and had established a battle record which would have entitled it to lasting fame had its service terminated with the battle of Jackson. It had now been in the service but little over a year, had been engaged in four battles, many skirmishes, and arduous marches, and was in the midst of one of the greatest campaigns of the war, in which the valor, fortitude and endurance of its officers and men was to be tested to the utmost.

On the day following the capture of Jackson the regiment marched in the direction of Vicksburg and the enemy. The rebel army was stubbornly contesting against the advance of the Union army, and it was evident that another great battle was impending. The wounded were left at Jackson, in charge of Assistant Surgeon C. C. Biser, who was afterwards captured and, with the wounded who were able to be moved, sent to Richmond, Va. In his history of the regiment, Colonel Clark R. Wever describes the events which transpired immediately preceding the next battle in which it participated [see note 12]:

At Clinton we were detached from the corps, and ordered to remain to do picket and personal guard duty for General Grant, who had established his headquarters there. Tired, sore-footed and war-worn, we lay down at night congratulating ourselves upon our good fortune in being allowed a short respite, while the rest of the army were still "marching on"; but scarcely had our reveille been sounded on the day following, (May 16th) when the angry booming of a hundred [sic] cannon told but too plainly that there was more work to be done. General Grant ordered us to move with the least possible delay. We were immediately in the road, and marching in quick time for the theater of operations. The dust and heat were almost insufferable, and the road in places literally blockaded with teams. Within three miles of Champion Hills, very discouraging reports were sent to the rear. Everybody concurred in the opinion that the rebels had a very decided advantage, and bid fair to gain the day. An aide to General Grant rode back to us and ordered the brigade (two regiments only being present, the Tenth Missouri, and Seventeenth Iowa,) forward on the double quick. The order was immediately given by Colonel Hillis, and the boys threw away knapsacks, haversacks, blankets and everything (except guns and ammunition,) that could impede their march; pushed forward on a brisk run, and soon reached the scene of conflict.


The regiment so greatly distinguished itself at Champion's Hill, that the compiler, at the risk of having to give more meager description of future battles in which it was engaged, gives here the entire official report of its conduct in that hotly contested engagement:

Headquarters Seventeenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry,
Before Vicksburg, Miss., May 24, 1862.

CAPTAIN: — In compliance with Special Orders No. 27, from your headquarters, I herewith submit the following report of the part taken by my regiment (Seventeenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry) in the battle of Champion's Hill on the 16th inst. I arrived in the vicinity of the hills on which the battle was being fought about 2 p. m., and without having time to rest my men (who had that day marched 12 miles through dust, and under a burning sun, with knapsacks on their backs,) was ordered forward at a double quick. I established my line at a point midway up and on the north side of the hill, my right resting on the left of the Vicksburg road, in the rear of the Ninety-third Illinois (Colonel Putnam) which was severely pressed by the enemy's massed forces. In doing this my men suffered from the fire intended for the Ninety-third. As soon as my line was formed, Colonel Putnam moved his regiment out by the right flank, and left me fronting the enemy direct, some 40 or 50 yards only intervening. This position I held under a well directed fire, which my gallant fellows returned with interest, for about fifteen minutes, when I ordered an advance, which was executed with a heroism that I am proud of. This caused the enemy to give way, but he soon rallied, and again gave way, and in this way I advanced, driving him slowly, inch by inch, from the ravines and ditches in which he had effected a lodgement, up one declivity and down another, and finally onto the summit of the ridge along which the road runs, and charged him down the slope on the other (south) side, retaking four pieces of artillery, J. F. Waddell's Alabama battery. This battery had been taken earlier in the engagement by the Eleventh Regiment, Indiana Volunteers, but this splendid regiment had again to yield it, the enemy having massed his forces against it. After this charge, I commanded a halt and rectified my line, which had been somewhat deranged. All being quiet at this moment on my front, I ran back a short distance to get a horse (mine having been shot early in the engagement) but, being overcome by excessive labor and heat, I fell by the way, and by the time I returned to my regiment, which was in a few minutes, it had made another gallant charge, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Wever, routing the Thirty-first Alabama Regiment. In this charge a great many prisoners were taken, including the colors, color bearer and guard of that regiment, which colors are now in my possession. The enemy again rallied, but by this time the gallant Tenth Missouri was in position on my right, and we gave him two more charges, which put him in perfect rout. This then ended the fight, so far as we were concerned, and, I think, entirely. My regiment then, wearied and worn, with thinned ranks, rested on their arms until ordered into camp. It is worthy of note that in this engagement the regiment charged the enemy successfully five times, under the most galling fire from musketry and shell, and over ravines, and ditches that are very difficult of passage, and which afforded him excellent protection.

In conclusion, I feel that my command did their whole duty, and are worthy of all commendation. To my Lieutenant Colonel (Wever) and Adjutant (Woolsey) I am greatly indebted for their daring and assistance during the engagement. Both of these officers had their horses shot under them early in the fight. I cannot forbear mentioning in this connection specially for great bravery First Lieutenant C. W. Woodrow, Company K.; Second Lieutenant George W. Deal, Company G.; Second Lieutenant Tower, Company B., (whose gallantry resulted in the loss of his leg); First Sergeant Evan E. Swearngin, Company F., and Private Albert G. Trussel, Company G, who captured the colors and color bearer of the Thirty-first Alabama. In the engagement I had nine companies, one company (E) having been left back at Jackson on duty. My loss in killed, wounded and missing is 57 (25 per cent of the number engaged), as per list of casualties which I send with this report [see note 13]. We captured 175 prisoners, mostly Alabama and Missouri troops.

D. B. HILLIS,
Colonel Commanding Seventeenth Iowa Volunteers.

CAPT. WILLIAM W. McCAMMON,
A. A. A. G., 2d Brig., 7th Div. [See note 14.]


On May 20th the regiment reached Vicksburg and became part of the besieging force. On May 22d it participated in the assault on the enemy's works, but, being on the reserve line, lost but seven men. The assault was repulsed and the regiment was thereafter engaged in the regular siege operations, furnishing details for the trenches and, while performing this duty, suffered slight losses from the enemy's sharpshooters. Later in the siege, however, the regiment was ordered to perform a most hazardous and dangerous service, which is thus described by Colonel Wever [see note 15]:

On the 26th of June, General Logan sent to our division for two regiments to assist in holding and defending Fort Hill, which was then mined and in readiness for blowing up; the Seventeenth was one of the two designated. Early in the afternoon the fort was blown up, and the breach held by troops from General Logan's division, until 11 o'clock at night, when we were placed in the broken parapet, which we held until 2 o'clock A. M. of the 27th, with musketry alone, while the rebels were continually hurling hand grenades (6 and 10 pound shells,) into our midst. Here we lost 37 men killed and wounded; the killed were so charred and mutilated that their friends could scarcely identify them, and the wounds were terrible, very many afterwards proving fatal.


The regiment had now lost in battle, on the skirmish line, and in siege operations, an aggregate of 268 [see note 16]. Its losses by death from disease and by discharge for disability had also been heavy, but, undismayed, it was ready to go forward in the discharge of its duty, no matter how great the suffering and sacrifice it might still be called upon to endure. On the 4th of July, 1863, the long siege came to an end, Vicksburg had been surrendered and the Seventeenth Iowa entered the city and went into camp. Here it remained, doing garrison duty, until the 9th of September.

Upon the date last mentioned the regiment with its brigade and division proceeded to Helena, Ark., and on September 29th was ordered to Memphis, Tenn. There it joined the Fifteenth Army Corps, under command of General W. T. Sherman. On October 10th, the regiment, now a part of Sherman's army, moved to Glendale, Miss., and on October 17th started on the long march to Chattanooga, Tenn. Thirty-two days later — November 19th — the army reached its destination. At 2 A. M., November 24th, Sherman's army crossed the Tennessee river on pontoon boats and took position in readiness for the impending conflict. The Seventeenth Iowa, under command of Colonel Clark R. Wever, participated in the preliminary operations on the 24th, and on the 25th of November, 1863, was in that magnificent line of battle which swept Mission Ridge from base to crest, steadily driving the enemy and performing one of the greatest achievements of the war. In this battle the regiment fully maintained its splendid record for bravery and efficiency. Its loss was 12 killed, 32 wounded and 14 missing, total 58, thus increasing its aggregate loss in battle to 326. At the conclusion of his official report [see note 17], Colonel Wever makes special mention of the gallant conduct of Adjutant Woolsey, and First Lieutenant Geo. W. Deal. November 26th, the regiment joined in the pursuit of the enemy to Greyville, Ga., from which point it returned to Chattanooga, arriving there on the evening of the 29th.

On December 2d the regiment marched to Bridgeport, Ala., where it remained in camp until the 22d, and then marched to Huntsville, Ala., where it remained during the winter and spring of 1864, part of the time engaged in guarding large supply trains, collecting grain and provisions, and watching the movements of the enemy. On the 1st of April, 1864 a large majority of the regiment had re-enlisted as Veteran Volunteers, and it now became a veteran organization in name as well as in fact. It had at that time an aggregate strength of 352 present for duty, with 127 absent, including the sick in hospitals, and those on detached service, on leave of absence and furlough, making a total of 479 still borne upon the rolls of the regiment — just one-half the number with which it had left Iowa on the 19th of April, 1862 — less than two years before.

While at Huntsville, Colonel Wever was in command of the Post. He was subsequently detailed to take command of another brigade, and greatly distinguished himself by the manner in which he defended the Post at Resaca, Ga., holding out against superior numbers until reinforcements reached him, and the enemy was compelled to abandon the siege. In the meantime Lieutenant Colonel Archer was in command of the Seventeenth Iowa, which had been moved to Scottsville, thence to Stevenson, where its division was again concentrated and was moving to join the main army at the front, when the Seventeenth Iowa was again separated from its brigade and ordered to return to Tilton, where it arrived July 2d. Here it was assigned to the duty of guarding the railroad between Dalton and Resaca, a distance of fifteen miles, except at a point near Reseca where two companies of another regiment belonging to its brigade (the Tenth Missouri) were stationed. The regiment here had a most difficult and dangerous service to perform during the remainder of the summer. This duty was faithfully executed, and trains bearing supplies for the main army continued to pass over the road until the 13th of October, 1864, on which date the little garrison at Tilton found itself surrounded by a largely superior force of the enemy and, after a most gallant and heroic defense, was compelled to surrender. Captain William Horner of Company G (subsequently commissioned Major and Lieutenant Colonel) was on picket duty at the time the enemy appeared, and, being cut off from his beleaguered comrades, escaped with the thirty-one men under his command to the forest-covered mountains. These men, with those who subsequently escaped from their captors, constitute the number enrolled upon the worn and faded but distinctly legible old war paper which lies before the compiler of this historical sketch. It is entitled: "Return of the Seventeenth Regiment of Iowa Veteran Volunteer Infantry, Army of the United States, for the month of October, 1864." This old return is regularly made out, in compliance with military regulations. It is dated at Reseca, Georgia, October 31, 1864, and signed "William Horner, Capt, commanding the Regiment" and "E. E. Swearngin, First Lieutenant and Acting Adjutant." It shows three commissioned officers and forty-one enlisted men present for duty. In the proper places upon the return the following notations are made:

"During the first part of the month of October, 1864, the regiment was encamped at Tilton, Ga., on the A. and W. R. Railroad. At that point nothing of interest occurred until the 13th inst, when a corps of Rebel infantry, commanded by Lieutenant General Stewart, made their appearance around the command. The defense consisted of a Block House capable of holding 70 men; the remainder of the men, numbering 210, were placed outside in the trenches. An insolent demand for surrender, accompanied by a threat to massacre the entire garrison, if not acceded to, was made by the Rebel General, to which Colonel. Archer made the brief and pointed reply: 'If you want me and my men come and take us.' Eleven guns were placed in position by the enemy (12 and 32 pounders) and opened on the Block House. After holding the place seven hours, and with the Block House ready to fall and crush the whole force, it was surrendered to the enemy, and everything destroyed by them. Lieutenant Colonel Archer and Adjutant Woolsey were paroled. Several officers and men have since escaped. The regiment became veteran seven months (ago and have just received the order to go home. Forty-four men are left to accept of the furlough."

"The regimental and company records having been captured and destroyed by the enemy at Tilton, Ga., on the 13th of October, 1864, it is therefore impossible to give the names of absentees. Three hundred and one enlisted men missing in action."

The names of the officers missing in action (13 in number) are given on the return. Opposite the names of two of the officers notations are made, as follows:

“E. E. Swearngin {Captured at Tilton, Ga., Oct. 13, 1864, escaped below Rome, Ga., and got through safe to our lines.”

“Capt. S. E. Hicks {Captured Oct. 13, 1864, by the enemy, escaped Oct. 19, 1864. Drowned Oct. 21, 1864, near Rome, Ga., in attempting to get to our lines in company with Lieutenant Swearngin.”

Pathos and tragedy are combined in these brief notations. The closing scene in that unequal conflict shows that the Block House had been reduced to such a state of ruin that it was about to fall upon and crush its gallant defenders. With ammunition exhausted, and with the sword and bayonet the only means of defense against the overwhelming numbers of the enemy, there was no alternative but death or surrender. The brave and intrepid Colonel Archer was therefore fully justified in surrendering himself and his command, with the stipulation that they were to be treated as prisoners of war.

At the time of re-enlistment, the men had been assured that they would be sent to their homes and given a furlough of thirty days, to date from the time of their reaching the State of Iowa. They had eagerly and hopefully expected the fulfillment of that promise, but the exigencies of the campaign which ensued became so great that every soldier in General Sherman's army, who was able for duty, was needed at the front. The great majority of these faithful men of the Seventeenth Iowa were thus compelled to relinquish the hope of again seeing their homes and loved ones until the end of the war. It was only to the little band who had escaped capture or death that the promise was fulfilled. Of those who were carried into captivity, many died from wounds received before their capture, and from disease. The remnant of this gallant regiment, under Colonel Wever, subsequently joined Sherman's army at Savannah, marched thence to Washington and took part in the Grand Review. Finally, with the exchanged or released prisoners, these veteran survivors of the Seventeenth Iowa were conveyed to Louisville, Kentucky, where, on the 25th day of July, 1865, they were mustered out of the service of the United States. They then proceeded to Davenport, Iowa, where the regiment was disbanded and the men returned to their homes.

Among all the splendid regiments which the State of Iowa sent into the field, not one has a more honorable record of service than the Seventeenth. To those of its members who still survive, to their families and to all who shall come after them, this brief history is dedicated, with the hope and belief that; in connection with the revised roster of the regiment which follows, it will serve the purpose intended by the General Assembly of the State, in enacting the law providing for the preservation of the history of its military organizations, and the personal record of its soldiers.


SUMMARY OF CASUALTIES.

Total Enrollment 1,085
Killed 45
Wounded 246
Died of wounds 24
Died of disease 97
Discharged for disease, wounds or other causes 263
Buried in National Cemeteries 76
Captured 315
Transferred 28


[Note 1.] War of the Rebellion Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 17, p. 109.

[Note 2.] War of the Rebellion Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 17, page 106.

[Note 3.] War of the Rebellion Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 17, page 76.

[Note 4.] War of the Rebellion Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 17, page 107.

[Note 5.] War of the Rebellion Official Records, Series I, Vol. 17, page 78.

[Note 6.] Adjutant General's Report, State of Iowa, 1864, page 454.

[Note 7.] War of the Rebellion Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 17, page 236.

[Note 8.] War of the Rebellion Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 17, page 171.

[Note 9.] Adjutant General's Report, State of Iowa,1864, page 454.

[Note 10.] Adjutant General's Report, State of Iowa, 1864, pages 444-5.

[Note 11.] Major Archer was absent on detached duty. Foot note page 445. Adjutant General's Report, 1864.

[Note 12.] Adjutant General of Iowa's Report, 1864, page 457.

[Note 13.] War of the Rebellion Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 24, page 10. Killed 5, wounded 51, missing in action 1. Total 57.

[Note 14.] War of the Rebellion Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 24, pages 63-4.

[Note 15.] Colonel Hillis had resigned May 30, 1863, and Lieutenant Colonel Wever had been promoted to Colonel of the regiment.

[Note 16.] Adjutant General of Iowa, 1864 Report, page 458. Adjutant General of Iowa, 1864 Report, page 449. Report of Major J. F. Walden, Comd'g Regt. at Fort Hill, June 25, 1863.

[Note 17.] Adjutant General of Iowa, 1864 Report, page 451.


SOURCE: Roster & Record of Iowa Soldiers During the War of the Rebellion, Volume 3, p. 3-13

Friday, February 19, 2010

Tenth Regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry

The Tenth regiment was ordered into quarters by the Governor in the latter part ol August, 1861. Nine full companies had assembled at the designated rendezvous by the 6th of September, and were mustered into the service of the United States by Capt. Alexander Chambers, United States Army, at Camp Fremont, near Iowa City, on the 6th and 7th days of September, 1861. The date of the completed muster of the tenth company (K) appears in the official record as October 11th, which would indicate that the company was not filled to the maximum until after the regiment had taken the field.

The names of its field and staff and company officers at organization will be found in the subjoined roster, and the subsequent changes, on account of death, promotion, resignation, or from whatever cause, will be found in the alphabetically arranged roster which follows, with the personal record of service opposite the name of each officer and enlisted man. These records have been compiled from the official reports of the Adjutant General of Iowa, supplemented by those on file in the War Department at Washington, in so far as access could be obtained to those records. It is more than possible that, with all the care that has been taken to make these records accurate, some errors have been made. When the magnitude of the work and the length of time which has transpired since the close of the war are taken into consideration, it will not be a matter for surprise —however much it is to be regretted — that all the mistakes as well as omissions revealed by these old records could not be discovered and corrected. It is believed that, in the main, these paragraphs will be found to properly represent the facts, briefly stated, connected with the personal service of each soldier of the regiment.

September 24, 1861, the regiment embarked on board transports at Davenport, for St. Louis, arriving there on the 27th. Here it received its arms, uniforms and camp equipments, and on October 1st was ordered to Cape Girardeau to aid in fortifying that place against a threatened attack of the enemy. From Cape Girardeau, the regiment engaged in an expedition which resulted in the dispersion of a rebel force under the command of Gen. Jeff Thompson. November 12th it was ordered to Bird's Point, and from that place engaged in several expeditions, in one of which — near Charleston — it had a sharp encounter with the enemy, resulting in a loss to the Tenth Iowa of 8 killed and 16 wounded [see note 1]. The regiment suffered greatly while at Bird's Point from sickness, the prevailing and most fatal malady being measles, the aggregate loss from November 12, 1861, to March 4, 1862, being 96 by death and by discharge on account of disease. It will thus be seen that in less than six months the regiment had suffered a loss of 120 men in killed and wounded and by death and discharge because of sickness. It was repeating the experience of the Iowa regiments which had preceded it, in the loss of a large number who could not withstand the hard conditions to which they were subjected by the change from the comforts of their home life to the hardships and exposure of the camp and the march during a winter campaign.

Early in March, 1862, the regiment was ordered to New Madrid, Mo., where it participated in the operations that led up to the evacuation of that place by the enemy; and a detachment from the Tenth Iowa, under Major McCalla, was first to enter the rebel works. It also assisted in the capture of Island No. 10, and in the pursuit of the enemy to Tiptonville, where 5,000 of the enemy and a large quantity of military supplies were captured. Following this brilliant achievement, the Tenth Iowa, now a part of the Union Army of the Mississippi, embarked on board transports and, in conjunction with the federal gunboats, made a demonstration against the rebel Fort Wright; but the army was abruptly recalled, just as these operations were fairly under way, to re-inforce the Army of the Tennessee, in its operations against the rebel stronghold at Corinth, Miss., and, proceeding up the Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee rivers, the transports landed the troops at Hamburg, Tenn., from which point they marched to Corinth, and became part of the investing force in the siege which followed.

In the operations around Corinth, the regiment acquitted itself with great credit and received the warm commendation of its experienced commander, Colonel Perczel, for its gallant conduct in the skirmish with the enemy, May 26, 1862. Corinth was evacuated May 30, 1862, and the Tenth Iowa participated In the pursuit of the enemy until ordered to return, when it went into camp on Clear Creek, near Corinth, on June 15th, where it remained until June 29th, when it was sent on an expedition to Ripley, forty miles distant, and returned to its camp on Clear Creek, July 6th, where it remained until July 29th, when it marched to Jacinto and went into camp near that place, where it remained until September 18th. On that date, the rebel army under Generals Price and Van Dorn was in possession of Iuka, within striking distance of our camp, and General Rosecrans moved his troops (of which the Tenth Iowa formed a part) on the 19th of September, towards Iuka, and on the evening of that day the enemy met him, and the battle of Iuka began.

The Tenth Iowa occupied a most fortunate position in this battle, which enabled it to inflict heavy loss upon the enemy with but slight loss to itself. The manner in which the regiment was handled reflected great credit upon its commander. The following extract from the report of Colonel Perczel will show the great skill with which he executed the orders of his brigade commander, General Sullivan:

Agreeably to your orders, I advanced on September 19th about 5 P. M. with my regiment and a section of the Twelfth Wisconsin Battery, under Lieutenant Immell. After a short survey of our line of battle, I took position with seven companies, a cheval [see note 2] on the Iuka road, about a quarter of a mile ahead of our left wing. I sent three companies to the right into a dense wood; then I put my two pieces into position, and threw a few shells in an oblique direction, where I discovered the rebel lines. My three companies in the woods reported a full brigade of rebels advancing on our left wing, on which I withdrew them, and, leaving only one company for the observation of the enemy, I changed front perpendicular to our line of battle on the Iuka road. I planted my two pieces anew, and thus obtained a dominating flanking position. Being on a ridge, I could watch the enemy's movements, who had to cross a broken open field In order to attack our forces. They soon emerged from the woods, opened a heavy Are, and advanced on our lines. Their fire was returned, and I too opened with musketry and canister. The rebels wavered, fell back a little, but were soon rallied and advanced again, nothing daunted by our fire, which made great havoc in their ranks. They followed our left wing Into the woods, and for a short time there was no enemy In our sight; but suddenly a full regiment marched out from the woods on their side, offering their right flank to my fire, with the evident Intention to advance to the support of their forces already engaged. I opened instantly with canister and musketry, on which they fell back to the woods. • • • They attempted twice to advance but were driven back each time. We had the advantage of the ground. Our fire told fearfully upon them, while we suffered next to nothing. Their fire, up a steep hill, had been altogether too high. • • • Night coming on, I drew a little closer to our main body; but on the report of Company I, which I left to observe the enemy's movements, that a new body of rebels was advancing, I advanced again with three companies. As we approached, the enemy opened upon us, but owing to the darkness, and again to their up-hill firing, not a man was hurt. We returned the fire with great execution, as we found on the morning of the 20th the ground strewn with the bodies of their dead. • • •


At the close of his report, the Colonel thanks his officers and men for the promptness with which they executed his orders, and says, "The Tenth Iowa have proved themselves good soldiers." He further says, "I have to mention efficient services and assistance of our brave Major N. McCalla, and of my Adjutant, Wm. Manning, and also the able and brave manner in which Lieutenant Immell handled his two pieces of artillery."

The entire loss of the regiment in this battle was but 7 men wounded. It is but seldom that such effective service is performed in battle with such slight loss. In all the battles in which it was subsequently engaged, the Tenth Iowa was never so fortunate as to escape with so small a loss in proportion to the magnitude of the engagement and the number of the regiment engaged. Major General Rosecrans, who was the chief in command, says In his official report: “The Tenth Iowa, under Colonel Perczel, deserves honorable mention for covering our left flank from the assault of the Texas Legion."

Brig. Gen. C. S. Hamilton says, "An attempt to turn the left flank of my division by a heavy force of the enemy, moving up the open field and ravine on my left, was most signally repulsed by Colonel Perczel with the Tenth Iowa and a section of Immell's battery. So bravely was this attempt repulsed that the enemy made no more attempts in that direction."

Brig. Gen. J. C. Sullivan, who commanded the brigade to which the Tenth Iowa was attached, says, "The Tenth Iowa, with a section of the Twelfth Wisconsin Battery, was ordered to hold a road leading to our left and rear. The regiment held the position assigned them, and drove back a brigade of rebels which was advancing to take possession of the road. Colonel Perczel gallantly held his position, and by his determined stand led the enemy to believe we were in strong force at that point, and to desist from their attack." The commendations of these generals show that the service of the Tenth Iowa was most important, and that it was fully appreciated.

The next experience of the regiment under fire was in the battle of Corinth, on the 3d and 4th days of October, 1862. The position to which the Tenth Iowa was assigned on the first day of the battle was again a fortunate one, as will be seen by the following extract from the official report of its commanding officer, Major Nathaniel McCalla. After describing the position occupied — a shallow cut on the line of the Memphis & Charleston Railroad — he says:

While In this position the fire from their batteries was kept up, raking the ground, and would have done immense damage but for the fact that at this point where the line was formed on the track, there was a cut which formed a good shelter, their balls passing over our heads, many of them lodging In the opposite bank, so closely had they raked the ground. Seeing an attempt on the part of the enemy to move forward one of their batteries to a point on the railroad to our right, from which they could open upon us an enfilading fire, I ordered the regiment to file Into the dense woods in our rear by the left flank, having cleared the track In time to avoid a raking fire. I again formed a line of battle, and marched to the rear, under the incessant fire of their battery, whose firing had now become too high to do much damage.


The Major conducted his regiment through the woods to the left until he reached the main road leading directly to the front. On this road the enemy's pickets were discovered, and the regiment was immediately deployed as skirmishers, but the enemy did not advance, and the Tenth Iowa remained in line until morning. On the morning of the 4th, in obedience to orders, Major McCalla moved his regiment to a new position to the left and rear of the line he had occupied during the night, and went into line of battle in support of the Sixth Wisconsin Battery. Of the conduct of the regiment in the second day's battle Major McCalla reports as follows:

At about 10 A. M., the firing of the skirmishers In front of us became rapid, and the advancing columns of the enemy soon drove them back; but they rallied to a point directly in front of our line, and until they had retired to our rear, I could not order my regiment to fire; but as soon as the space In front was cleared I gave the order to commence firing, which was kept up with spirit, but without very materially checking the advance of the enemy, who approached us in overwhelming numbers. My men had fired from 15 to 20 rounds, when I perceived that numbers of the enemy were passing around the right and getting in the rear of my line, and also that the battery on my left had been silenced and taken, and the enemy pressing forward to the left of us. I ordered the regiment to fall back, which it did in good order, to a distance of about seventy-five yards, when I made a halt, facing about and again opening fire; but being unable to retain this position. I again ordered the regiment back under cover of the Twelfth Wisconsin, and Powell's batteries. Passing to the rear in line of battle, I halted at a position immediately between these batteries. I then marched forward and occupied the same ground from which we had retired, during the remainder of the battle. The casualties in the regiment were 6 men wounded on the first day, and one commissioned officer [see note 3] and 30 men wounded and 3 killed on the second day.


Major McCalla makes special mention of Capt. N. A. Holson, Acting Lieutenant Colonel, and Capt. Jackson Orr, Acting Major, also Wm. Manning, Adjutant, commending these officers for their assistance to him and for their coolness and courage. He also states that the line officers, without an exception, deported themselves with the greatest gallantry.

The brigade commander, General Sullivan, in his official report, says: "The Tenth Iowa sustained the brunt of the first attack of the enemy, until the regiment on their left gave way, and their flank was exposed, when they slowly fell back fighting."

After the battle of Corinth, the regiment had a short period of rest in camp, but, on November 1st, it was again on the move, participating in expeditions to Grand Junction, Davis Mills, Holly Springs and Moscow. It did not encounter the enemy in any of these movements.

From Moscow, the regiment marched with the army under General Grant down the line of the Mississippi Central Railroad. The objective point of the expedition was Vicksburg, but the capture of Holly Springs by the skillfully executed cavalry raid of the rebel General Van Dorn, and the destruction of the vast stores of supplies which General Grant had accumulated at that point, compelled the abandonment of the expedition and the prompt retreat of the Union army. It became necessary to at once dispatch a train of several hundred wagons to Memphis for supplies, and the Tenth Iowa was one of the regiments selected to guard this immense train over the long road to Memphis and back to meet the retreating army which had become reduced almost to the starving point, before the train met them upon its return with the needed supplies. After performing this important service, the regiment remained for one month in camp at White's Station, and then moved to Memphis, where, on the 4th of March, 1863, it embarked and proceeded down the river, to enter actively upon the greatest campaign thus far attempted during the war. The compiler of this sketch realizes with regret that the limitation of space to which he is restricted will not permit him to go into particularity of detail in describing the operations of the Tenth Iowa Infantry in this great campaign, or in those which followed, down to the close of the war. To do so would require a volume, instead of the few pages which follow.

The regiment accompanied the hazardous expedition through the tortuous windings of the Yazoo Pass, over two hundred miles from the Mississippi, and returned to Helena on the 9th of April, 1863. It now belonged to the Third Brigade of the Seventh Division of General McPherson's Seventeenth Army Corps, with which it participated in the brilliant series of battles at Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hills and in that sanguinary charge upon the enemy's works at Vicksburg on the 22d of May. In all of these engagements the regiment displayed the same valor and prompt obedience to orders which it had shown in all its preceding encounters with the enemy, but its splendid achievement and heavy loss at Champion Hills on the 16th of May, 1863, is considered by many of the survivors as not only by far the most notable record the regiment made during the Vicksburg campaign but of the entire war. In that hard fought battle the division to which the Tenth Iowa belonged was commanded by the gallant General M. M. Crocker of Iowa [see note 4]. The regiment here stood its ground in an open stand up fight, taking and returning the fire of the enemy at close range until its last round of ammunition was exhausted. On no part of the battlefield was the fighting so severe, persistent or protracted. Iowa was conspicuous in this battle, five of her regiments — the Fifth, Tenth, Seventeenth, Twenty-fourth and Twenty-eighth — being engaged, and all acquitting themselves with great credit. The Tenth lost nearly one-half of its number engaged. Of its officers, Capt. Stephen W. Poage, Lieut. James H. Terry and Lieut, Isaac H. Brown, were killed on the field, and Capt. Robert Lusby, Capt. Nathan A. Holson, Capt. Albert Head, Lieut. John W. Wright, Lieut. A. L. Swallow, Lieut. Elbert J. Kuhn, Lieut. George Gregory and Lieut. William P. Meekins, were wounded. The total loss of the regiment in this battle was 158, 34 killed and 124 wounded.

On the 19th of May the regiment had reached the position to which it was assigned in the rear of Vicksburg, and became part of the investing force in the siege. The regiment participated in the charge on the 22d of May and lost 3 killed and 24 wounded. Here the gallant Captain Head was again severely wounded. The regiment remained on duty, in the trenches as sharpshooters, supporting batteries, and performing its full part in the siege operations until June 22nd, when It was transferred, with its brigade, to the defensive line on Black River to guard against the possible attempt of the rebel General Johnston to raise the siege by attacking the besieging force in the rear.

The regiment remained upon this important duty until after the surrender of Vicksburg, July 4, 1863, when it was immediately sent in pursuit of Johnston's army, which had been withdrawn to the defensive works around Jackson, against which the army under General Sherman promptly began siege operations, which ended on July 16th, upon the evacuation of Jackson by the forces under Johnston, and their retreat into the interior of Mississippi. Thus ended the Vicksburg campaign, with such satisfactory results for the Union army, and such disastrous results for the enemy. The victory had been won, however, at a tremendous cost. On both sides many thousands had been killed and wounded, and thousands more were to share their fate before the final triumph of the Union arms. On the 19th of July the Tenth Iowa returned to Vicksburg, and from there proceeded to Helena, Ark., with its division, where it remained until the last of September, when it was ordered to proceed to Memphis, there to unite with the Fifteenth Army Corps under Maj. Gen. Wm. T. Sherman, and to march across the country to Chattanooga, there to re-inforce the Army of the Cumberland and to deal another crushing blow to the enemies of the Union.

On the 17th of October the long and toilsome march was begun. For thirty-two days the army under Sherman pressed forward and, on the 19th of November, arrived at Chattanooga. There the great struggle was renewed around Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. The Tenth Iowa participated in the storming of Missionary Ridge, November 25th, and performed its full share in that memorable contest, in which it seemed impossible that human valor could accomplish the task of scaling those formidable heights. The loss of the regiment in this engagement was 11 killed, 35 wounded and 6 captured, out of 250 engaged.

After this battle the Tenth Iowa was moved to Bridgeport, thence to Larkinsville, Ala., and thence to Huntsville, where it went into camp January 9, 1864. Here, in the beginning of February, the requisite number to retain the regimental organization re-enlisted as veterans and were mustered into the service on March 30, 1864.

No better test of patriotism could have been shown by these brave and devoted men. They knew what war meant, had experienced its hardships, privations and horrors on the march and on the battlefield. They longed most earnestly to return to home and loved ones and yet, so long as the supreme object, for which they had first enlisted remained to be accomplished, they were willing to still forego the comforts of home and all its dear associations. To thousands of these brave and true men, who subsequently died in battle or from sickness, the high resolve to serve their country to the end was typical of that most sublime feeling that ever dominated the action of a human being — the feeling of total self-abnegation.

On April 30th the regiment was ordered to Decatur, Ala. During its stay there it was engaged in fortifying the place and, by way of diversion from such hard labor, had occasional skirmishes with the enemy's cavalry. On the 15th of June, the re-enlisted men of the regiment received the long-looked-for and very welcome order to proceed to Iowa on veteran furlough. After a most enjoyable visit of thirty days at their homes, they returned to the field and rejoined their comrades at Kingston, Ga., on the 1st of August. The reunited regiment now took part in various expeditions directed mainly against the rebel General Wheeler's large cavalry force which, by skillful maneuvering, managed to avoid coming in contact with the Union troops, while Inflicting considerable damage by tearing up railroad track and capturing supplies. The regiment returned from the last of these expeditions on the 15th of September, and again went into camp at Kingston. In the meantime, the Union cavalry force had been increased sufficiently to drive the rebel General Wheeler across the Tennessee river, and to relieve the infantry from the duty of guarding the railroad.

On the 28th of September, 1864, the non-veterans (those who had not reenlisted) were mustered out of the service and departed for their homes in Iowa. It must be said here that these men who had honorably and faithfully fulfilled the terms of their full period of service, and who did not feel that it was their duty to make the further sacrifice of remaining to the close of the war, were entitled to the gratitude of every loyal citizen. They were honorably discharged and returned to their homes to receive the commendations of their neighbors and friends for their long period of service and sacrifice. Many of them were broken in health, many bore upon their persons the scars of wounds received in battle, and all had earned the high regard and cordial welcome which was everywhere extended to them upon their return.

Early in October the Tenth Iowa Veteran Infantry received about 150 recruits, a number a little more than equal to that of the non-veterans mustered out. On the 3d of October the regiment moved from Kingston to Cartersville, and thence to Atlanta, where General Sherman had concentrated his army, preparatory to beginning his march to Savannah.

The story of that great march through the State of Georgia, "from Atlanta to the Sea," has been immortalized in song, and has its place in history as one of the most remarkable military expeditions ever undertaken, or accomplished. The Tenth Iowa, as a part of the Third Division of the Fifteenth Army Corps, participated actively in this great march, and in the reduction of the enemy's works around Savannah, the capture of Fort McAllister, the opening of communication with the federal fleet in the harbor, and the occupation of the city, on the 21st day of December, 1864, after which the regiment went into camp a short distance from the city and remained there until January 9, 1865. On the last named date, the concluding campaign of the war began. The regiment with its brigade and division crossed the river and entered the State of South Carolina, and began the long and toilsome march towards the North.

For nearly three months the march was continued, under the most difficult conditions; sometimes over almost impassable roads, wading through swamps, crossing swollen streams, through almost Incessant rains, and frequent skirmishes with the enemy, now rendered desperate by the certainty that their last line of resistance must soon be overcome. At last, after marching nearly five hundred miles, the Fifteenth Corps entered Goldsboro, N. C, on the 22d day of March, 1865, and went into camp for a season of rest and recuperation. Up to this time the troops had been compelled to subsist mainly upon such supplies as could be obtained from the country through which they passed, and which had often been found deficient, both in quantity and quality. Here, however, supplies were obtained in abundance from the seaboard, and the soldiers improved rapidly in health and strength.

The regiment left Goldsboro on the 7th of April. Their next halting place was at Raleigh, N. C, where they witnessed the capitulation of the rebel army under General Johnston and the removal of the last organized resistance to the Union army in its victorious march to Petersburg and Richmond, and on to Washington. Arrived at Washington, the regiment participated in the grand review, and afterwards returned to its camp near the city, where it remained until early In June, when it was ordered to Louisville, Ky., where it remained until the latter part of June, when it was ordered to proceed to Little Rock, Ark., where it arrived early In July. Here it remained until August 15, 1865, on which date it was mustered out of the service, and proceeded to Davenport, Iowa, where it was disbanded, and the men were sent to their homes.

The record of the Tenth Iowa Infantry is absolutely without blemish. In Its long and arduous service in ten of the states that were in rebellion against the Government, its many battles, its weary marches, its patient endurance of hardships, its implicit obedience to orders — in all that goes to make up a history of service well and faithfully performed, the regiment stands in the front rank of Iowa's splendid military organizations. No man who served in its ranks and contributed to its good record could leave a more glorious heritage to his posterity. The State of Iowa has honored itself in making provision for the permanent preservation in its archives of the military history of the men who fought for the maintenance of the Union in the great War of the Rebellion. So long as patriotism is honored among men will these records be perused by the loyal sons and daughters of the heroic men who gave their services to their country in her time of greatest need.


SUMMARY OF CASUALTIES.

Total enrollment 1319
Killed 63
Wounded 277
Died of wounds 35
Died of disease 135
Discharged for disease, wounds or other causes 288
Buried in National Cemeteries 60
Captured 17
Transferred 49


[Note 1.] Report of Lieut. Col. Wm. E. Small, Page 844, Vol. 2, Adjutant General of Iowa, 1863. Also Page 185 — 1866 Report.

[Note 2.] "A cheval." Placed so as to command two roads, or the space between two sides.

[Note 3.] Capt. Albert Head of Company F, wounded severely in the forehead.

[Note 4.] General Crocker entered the service as Captain of Company D, Second Infantry: was promoted to Major of that regiment, was the first Colonel of the Thirteenth Iowa Infantry, and was later promoted to Brigadier General of Volunteers.


SOURCE: Roster & Record of Iowa Soldiers During the War of the Rebellion, Volume 2, p. 145-52