The Fifth Iowa Volunteers

This regiment was made up largely of companies raised in the counties of Cedar, Jasper, Louisa, Marshall, Buchanan, Keokuk, Benton, Van Buren, Jackson and Allamakee. The first field officers were William H. Worthington, colonel; Charles L. Mathies, lieutenant-colonel; and William S. Robertson, major. It entered the United States service at Burlington on the 17th of July, 1861, with 918 men. It was sent to Lexington, Mo., on the 14th of August. The regiment was attached to General Pope's army, and on the 22d of May, 1862, its commander, Colonel Worthington, was killed by a picket of our army, while visiting during the night the grand guard of the division, as general officer of the day. He was succeeded by Colonel Mathies, who commanded the regiment at the battle of Iuka, which was fought on the 19th of September, 1862.

General Sterling Price, with a confederate army, had seized Iuka, at which place Colonel Murphy had been left with a Wisconsin regiment to guard a large supply of stores collected for Grant's army. Upon learning that General Price was at Iuka, General Grant sent General Ord with 6,000 men to attack Price. General Rosecrans, with 9,000 men, was ordered to co-operate with Ord from the south. The Fifth Iowa was in the advance column sent against Iuka on the 18th. General Price came out and attacked Rosecrans in the woods and hills as he was advancing upon Iuka, and the battle opened. The hills were too steep to form a strong line of infantry and several batteries were planted in good positions to open on the confederates.  The fifth Iowa was brought up to help protect these batteries which were pouring a hot fire into the enemy’s ranks.  The Tenth and Sixteenth Iowa regiments were warmly engaged, and from 5 o’clock until darkness put an end to the conflict, it was waged with great fury on both sides.  The Ohio battery, which was doing great execution, was taken and retaken several times by desperate charges.  The horses were all killed, most of the gunners killed or wounded, during the fierce struggles for possession of the guns, until most of them were disabled when darkness put an end to the contest the union army held its ground and during the night Price's army retreated to Iuka to unite with Van Dorn's. The union army marched into Iuka on the 20th. The losses on each side exceeded a thousand. The Fifth and Sixteenth Iowa regiments won the highest honors of the day and were especially commended in General Rosecrans' report. The loss of the Fifth was 220. On the 1st of October the regiment returned to Corinth and was in the battle of the 4th, where it guarded the Eleventh Ohio battery. In 1863, the Fifth was in Grant's Vicksburg campaign and shared in the series of battles and victories which made up the wonderful achievements of that most glorious campaign of the war. It was also in Grant's army which fought the great battles about Chattanooga, and met with heavy losses. On the 8th of August, 1864, the small remnant of the Fifth infantry was consolidated with the Fifth Iowa cavalry, after more than three years of honorable service.

SOURCE, Benjamin F. Gue, Biographies And Portraits Of The Progressive Men Of Iowa, Volume 1, p. 93-4