This regiment was raised and organized in the summer of 1861, and entered the service in August. The first field officers were Grenville M. Dodge, colonel; John Galligan, lieutenant-colonel; William R. English, major. Its first active service was in General Curtis' army of the southwest in Missouri, and its first fight near Springfield, on the 12th of February, 1862. Soon after, General Curtis marched in pursuit of the rebel army under General Price, towards the Boston mountains. Here Price was strongly reinforced by Generals McCulloch, Van Dorn and McIntosh, who united their commands to fight Curtis. Moving his army to Pea Ridge, General Curtis took a strong position and awaited the attack of the combined confederate forces, 20,000 strong, a force largely superior to his own. General Sigel was at Bentonsville, ten miles southwest of General Curtis' center. Van Dorn, who now commanded the confederate army, sent a strong force to capture Sigel's command, which had already started to join Curtis. But, sending his train in advance, Sigel made such a strong fight with artillery and infantry during the retreat that he brought his command off with small loss, and joined Curtis on the battlefield. During the night Van Dorn moved to the flank and rear of the union army, taking a strong position and rendering Curtis' defenses of the day before useless. The battle opened at 10 o'clock and raged with great fury for hours. Colonel Dodge commanded a brigade, and the Fourth was under Lieutenant-Colonel Galligan in this battle, and fought bravely during the two days of desperate conflict. At one time it made a brilliant bayonet charge on the advancing enemy. Several Iowa regiments were engaged in this battle, all rendering gallant service. The battle of the second day was even more fierce and desperate than on the first. The confederates, knowing their superiority of numbers, were determined to crush and destroy the union army. But General Sigel wheeled battery after battery into position, until he had thirty cannon pouring shot and shell into the ranks of the advancing foe. With the batteries slowly advancing, supported by long lines of infantry, no charge of the enemy could face the iron hail that thinned their ranks, and at last human endurance ended in flight as regiments went to pieces and the retreat became general. Among the confederate killed were two famous generals, McCulloch and McIntosh, while Generals Price and Slack were severely wounded.
The next important battle in which the Fourth was engaged was under General Sherman in his disastrous assault on Vicksburg on the 29th of December, 1862. This regiment made a desperate charge upon the works and carried the first line of defenses, but not being supported had to abandon them with heavy loss. Of the 480 who went into the fight 112 fell. The regiment was in the battle of Arkansas Post, after which it joined Grant's army in the campaign against Vicksburg. After the capture of that stronghold it was in the campaign against Chattanooga, and took part in the battle of Lookout Mountain and shared in the glory of that brilliant victory. On the 1st day of January, 1864, their term of service having expired, the members of the regiment re-enlisted and received a furlough to visit their homes. The general assembly was in session when the veteran Fourth reached Des Moines, March 9th, and it adjourned and gave the soldiers a reception worthy of the glorious deeds they had performed. Early in May they returned to service and joined Sherman's army in the march through Georgia. It took an active part in the battles of that brilliant campaign up through the Carolinas and at its close marched to Washington, was sent from there to Louisville, Ky., where it was mustered out in July, I860, numbering then twenty-three officers and 457 men.
SOURCE, Benjamin F. Gue, Biographies And Portraits Of The Progressive Men Of Iowa, Volume 1, p. 92-3
No comments:
Post a Comment