CAMP PITTSBURG, TENNESSEE RIVER,
March 26, 1862.
I wrote you last on board the “War Eagle,” the transport which brought our regiment from St. Louis to this place. However, as there is some doubt about your having received that letter – the mails being for military reasons retained at Paducah – I will at the risk of repetition narrate the one sad circumstance which cast a shadow over our otherwise pleasant and joyous trip. For strange as it may appear to one unacquainted with Iowa soldiers, yet it is a fact, that though our boys were nearing a place of comparative safety, and hastening with the rapidity of steam to the very heart of Secessia, where severe fighting with its consequent wounds, sufferings and death, seem inevitable and not far distant, they were as cheerful as if returning to their quiet homes on the peaceful prairies of the Hawkeye State.
On Monday, March 17th, when about twenty-five or thirty miles below Savannah, our boat was fired into by a murderous band of rebels concealed in the rocks and timber along the right bank of the river. Our first intimation of this ambuscade was a volley of forty or fifty balls into our right bow and across the hurricane deck. Three men fell – one, Alex Jenkins, Co. G, killed instantly by a ball through the head. He was just inside the fore cabin and was in the act of picking up his gun when the fatal shot struck him. Another was Martin Gentzler, of Co. C. He had fired once and was reloading, when a rifle ball pierced his left breast. He died in four or five hours. The third, Wm. Phillips, Company H, was wounded by a rifle ball through the right thigh, missing the bone but inflicting a very severely flesh wound. Many shots were fired at us after the first volley, but fortunately, except these three, none of our men were injured.
Our field officers were on the hurricane deck, and from the number of balls which whizzed around and past them, they were evidently particularly marked by the rebels. They all displayed the coolness and courage which our boys believed them to possess. Our Colonel continued his walk on the deck with the same composure as before the firing commenced, and gave orders to the boys with a calmness becoming one who has stood under shot and shell in several hard fought battles on the burning plains of India. Our boys and company commanders displayed that coolness and bravery with which we have always accredited them. Now it may seem a very small matter to be fired into by a few skulking rebels, but I assure you it is exceedingly trying to one’s nerves to have balls whistling around his head and see men fall, killed and wounded, by his side, from the shots of an enemy whose position is only known by the flash and smoke of his rifle. In an affair of this kind there is nothing of the excitement incident to a general engagement, but our men on the boat were targets to be fired into “at will” by the concealed assailants. To be conscious that one is thus a target, and yet to stand coolly upon the mark requires true grit and considerable of it.
Gen. Grant, after hearing of this attack, sent a detachment of cavalry to the place. The cavalry brought back a number of prisoners, and found that the shots fired by our boys had taken some effect – killing four of the rebels and wounding twelve.
We are now camped in the timber about a mile and a half from the river. Immense numbers of troops – infantry, cavalry, artillery and sharpshooters – are here, now, and boat loads more coming every day. I have no idea how many men are here, but I know for miles in all directions the timber is full of camps. I have been in the camps of the 2d, 3d, 6th, 7th, 8th, 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th Iowa regiments. They are scattered about within a circumference of three or four miles. The 2d, 7th, 12th and 14th Iowa are in Col. Lauman’s Brigade. The other regiments are brigaded with Illinois, Ohio and other troops. Our regiment belongs to the 3rd Brigade, 2d division, now under command of Col. T. W. Sweeney, of the 52d Ill. Our brigade is composed of the 7th and 52nd Ill., 8th Iowa infantry, and a squadron of the 2d Ill. cavalry.
Orders have just been received from headquarters, to the effect that when ordered to march the transportation of each regiment shall be reduced to thirteen wagons and two ambulances. Ten days provisions are to be taken – three days in haversacks and seven in wagons. Each team is to carry its own forage for ten days. Two Sibley or wall tents are allowed for the hospital. This order means that all tents, officers and men’s, are to be left behind, and we are to lay out in the balmy night air of Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana, till the rebellion is completely crushed out. All baggage not absolutely necessary will be left. This certainly looks like a forward movement, including a fight or two, was intended and expected. We are expecting an order to advance every day. The sooner it comes the better we will like it, for we are all persuaded that speedy and energetic action will give us the opportunity of a speedy return home.
I know nothing certainly of our movements, but I hope to date my next letter from Memphis or its vicinity; and if fighting must be done, to record a victory or two of the Union army of the Northwest, and the illustrious valor of the Iowa 8th.
Yours truly,
C–.
– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, April 3, 1862, p. 2
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