The Third Infantry.

This regiment numbered about 970 men when mustered into the service at Keokuk on the 10th of June, 1861. The field officers were Nelson G. Williams, colonel; John Scott, lieutenant-colonel, and Wm. M. Stone, major. The regiment left for the seat of war on the 29th, landing at Hannibal, Mo. It did service for several months in eastern Missouri, sometimes divided and again united. On the 17th of September Lieutenant-Colonel Scott, with about 500 of the Third Iowa, seventy home guards and a squad of artillery with a six-pound gun, attacked a rebel army of about 4,000, under General Atchison, near Blue Mills Landing. The rebels were concealed in a dense woods and their numbers unknown. There was a short, sharp fight when Scott's little army was driven back by overwhelming numbers and with heavy loss, amounting to 118 men. In March the regiment joined Grant's army at Pittsburg Landing and fought bravely at Shiloh on the 6th and 7th of April. Colonel Williams was disabled, Major Stone was taken prisoner, and the loss in killed, wounded and captured was very heavy. In October, under Lieut.-Col. M. M. Trumbull, the Third fought bravely at the battle of the Hatchie. Colonel Williams resigned in November, 1862; Scott had resigned in June, and Trumbull resigned in November, and Aaron Brown now became colonel; James Tullis, lieutenant-colonel, and Geo. W. Crosley, major. The regiment did good service under General Grant at the siege and capture of Vicksburg. It was in the battle before Jackson, July 12th, fought bravely and suffered heavy loss. The regiment was divided in 1864, and a portion of it, under Tullis, joined the Red River expedition under General Banks.

The two parts of the regiment were never reunited again and in the battle of Atlanta the last battalion of the gallant regiment fought itself out of existence. In its last desperate conflict on that bloody field Colonel Abernethy, its commander, was slain; Captain Griffith, the brave old color-bearer in many battles, fell mortally wounded, while the handful of undaunted men gathered around the flag, amid a shower of shot and shell, fighting madly in its defense. As the little remnant of the gallant old regiment was overwhelmed by numbers, before surrendering they tore the old flag in a dozen pieces, concealed them in their clothing, so that it was never captured by the enemy. Thus, amid the thunder of artillery, the screeching of shells, the rattle of musketry and the wild shouts of men in their death struggle, the last remnant of the Third Iowa passed out of existence.

SOURCE, Benjamin F. Gue, Biographies And Portraits Of The Progressive Men Of Iowa, Volume 1, p. 91-2