The Twentieth Iowa Infantry.

This regiment was raised under the call of July 2, 1862, for 300,000 more men. It was made up of five companies from Scott and five from Linn, and went into camp at Clinton, where, on the 25th of August, its organization was completed. It numbered 902 men, and its field officers were William McE. Dye, colonel; J. B. Leake, lieutenant-colonel; William G. Thompson, major.

Early in September the regiment was sent to Rolla, Mo., where it was placed in a brigade with the Thirty-seventh Illinois, First Iowa cavalry and a section of the First Missouri light artillery, under Colonel Dye. Through the months of October and November this brigade did hard marching in Missouri and Arkansas, and the members of the Twentieth suffered greatly from sickness and deaths. On the 4th of December the regiment started on a long, hard march to the battlefield of Prairie Grove, and reached it in time to participate in the battle of the 7th. The Twentieth did excellent service on that field, and lost forty-seven men killed and wounded. The defeat of the confederate army drove the rebel forces out of that section of the country for a long time. In May, 1863, the regiment was sent to reinforce the army operating around Vicksburg. Here it remained doing siege duty until the surrender of that stronghold and General Pemberton's army. It was soon after sent to reinforce General Banks' army in Louisiana. Lieutenant-Colonel Leake was captured with his command by a largely superior force of the enemy on the 29th of September, 1863, at Sterling Farm, and the command of the Twentieth regiment devolved on Major Thompson. It was soon after sent to Texas, where it remained until September, 1864, when it was sent to New Orleans. Major Thompson had resigned in May, and the regiment had been under the command of Capt. M. L. Thompson, of Company C. In September Lieutenant-Colonel Leake having been exchanged, rejoined the regiment. The regiment was soon after sent to Brownsville, Ark., where it did duty until the 8th of January, 1865. In February it joined the army in the Mobile expedition, and remained in that region until July 8th, when it was mustered out of the service with 464 men.

SOURCE, Benjamin F. Gue, Biographies And Portraits Of The Progressive Men Of Iowa, Volume 1, p. 104