Our Illinois regiments must be wary, or the Iowa regiments will bear off the honors of the campaign. At Wilson’s creek, under the gallant Lyon, the Iowa First did prodigies of valor. At Belmont, the Iowa Second did the main part of the work that redeemed the disasters of the day. And at Fort Donelson, that same regiment coming to the aid of Illinois, was the first over the entrenchments, and bayonet in hand in the thickest of the fray! And wherever else Iowa has fought, she has shown that her brave sons are doing all that gallant soldiers and fervid patriots can do. Thus far she has a record that any State might envy. – Chicago Tribune.
Our contemporary labors under a few mistakes, though it is not one to ascribe bravery to the Iowa soldiers. It was the Iowa Seventh that so signalized themselves at Belmont, and the Iowa Second that was the first, the very first, over the entrenchments at Fort Donelson, leading all other regiments. Wherever in a battle the fight is the hottest, and the leaden hail thickest, there the brave Iowa boys may be found fighting for the country they love so well. God bless them all; may that country richly reward the novel fellows for the services rendered in her hour of peril.
– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, February 21, 1862, p. 2
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