The Second Iowa Infantry

The Second Regiment of Iowa volunteers was organized in May, and was the first from the state to enter the service for three years. Samuel R. Curtis was its first colonel, James M. Tuttle first lieutenant-colonel, and M. M. Crocker its first major, all of whom were promoted to generals during the war.

This regiment took a prominent part in the battle of Fort Donelson, which resulted in the first great victory for the union armies in the war. Curtis had been promoted to brigadier-general and J. M. Tuttle to colonel of the Second regiment. The army under General Grant, about 15,000 strong, had moved on to invest Fort Donelson February 12, 1862. The confederate general, A. S. Johnston, was in command of that department, and had sent an army of about 18,000 under Generals Floyd, Pillow and Buckner to garrison the forts on the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers and resist Grant's march southward. Commodore Foote with several gunboats co-operated with Grant in the attack upon Fort Donelson. Before the battle opened Grant had collected heavy reinforcements. On the 14th the fort was nearly surrounded and the gunboats opened a heavy fire upon it. But the heavy guns from the fort soon disabled two of the vessels, and the fleet dropped down stream with a large loss of men. Early on the morning of the 15th General Pillow led a strong force against McClernand, who commanded the right wing of the union army, and after four hours of hard fighting drove him back with heavy loss. But reinforcements coming to his aid the enemy was driven back behind the defenses. General Grant now ordered General Smith to assault the works on the left. Col. J. G. Lauman, of the Seventh Iowa, commanded the brigade, composed of the Second, Seventh, and Fourteenth Iowa regiments, with the Twenty-fifth and Fifty-second Indiana, and this made up the storming party. Colonel Tuttle led the Second in the advance. The rebel works were 500 yards distant on a hill, obstructed with abatis. At 2 o'clock the line moved to the assault and met with a terrific fire of artillery and infantry. Not a man faltered; on they moved, as the ranks were thinned by the deadly missiles which smote them like hail, but they carried the outer works which they held, sleeping upon their arms as night came on. The confederates now saw that the fort was doomed, and during the night Pillow and Floyd fled with some of their troops on a steamer up the river. In the morning General Buckner surrendered the fort, his army of 13,000 men, sixty-five cannon, 20,000 stand of arms, and a vast quantity of stores. The Twelfth Iowa also took an active part in the battle, making four Iowa regiments which shared in the glory of the greatest union victory of the war up to that time. General Halleck sent the following dispatch to Adjutant-General Baker: "The Second Iowa infantry proved themselves the bravest of the brave; they had the honor of leading the column which entered Fort Donelson." Corp. V. P. Twombly, of Company F, the color-bearer, planted the flag on the captured fort.

Of the 630 officers and privates who led this heroic charge, forty-one were slain and 157 wounded. The great victory at Fort Donelson revived the hopes of the union cause everywhere, and was received with great rejoicing throughout the north. It wiped out the stigma at Bull Run and again showed the valor of western soldiers. The Second Iowa went from Donelson to Pittsburg Landing, and on the 6th and 7th of April did gallant service in the great battle of Shiloh, where it lost more than seventy men. The next battle in which this regiment took part was at Corinth on the 3d and 4th of October. Colonel Tuttle had been promoted brigadier-general; James Baker, colonel; N. W. Mills, lieutenant-colonel, and James B. Weaver, major. The Second did gallant service in this desperate battle and lost nearly one-third of its number engaged. Among the mortally wounded were its colonel, James Baker, and Lieut.-Col. N. W. Mills, who fell while leading in the thickest of the fight On the 13th of October, James B. Weaver was promoted to colonel and took command of the regiment, and it became a part of General Sherman's army, that made the great march to the sea, always doing excellent service on that famous campaign.

SOURCE, Benjamin F. Gue, Biographies And Portraits Of The Progressive Men Of Iowa, Volume 1, p. 91