Showing posts with label Battle of Bentonville. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Battle of Bentonville. Show all posts

Monday, June 14, 2021

MajorCharles Wright Wills: March 19, 1865

Twelve miles from Goldsboro, and six from railroad,
March 19, 1865.

Made 15 miles. Only two bad swamps. Very heavy artillery and musketry on our left (14th and 20th Corps) all day. Hear this evening that our men suffered heavily. General Lee is said to be here. Opinion is divided as to our having a battle to-morrow. First rate country to-day and a good abundance of forage. The farmers here have not many negroes. Rebel cavalry demonstrated on our left to-day, quite lively and captured several foragers. Five foragers from our regiment who had been out five days and whom we had about given up, returned to-night. They have been with the 17th A. C. All quiet on our right.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 364

Sunday, June 13, 2021

Major Charles Wright Wills: March 21, 1865

March 21, 1865.

We moved out this morning just before daylight and got within 50 yards of the Rebel skirmish line, but nothing going forward on our right or left, we returned to our original position. Had one man in Company H slightly wounded. We could have held our advanced line just as well as not. I think our right must rest on the river. Some 35,000 or 40,000 Rebels are reported here under Johnston. Some prisoners report Lee. I would like to see them whaled, but would like to wait until we refit. You see that too much of a good thing gets old, and one don't enjoy even campaigning after 50 or 60 days of it together. I believe I am surfeited with oven bread — (“death balls” our cook calls them), biscuit, and pork. I feel finely; wet from head to foot, has rained since noon hard most of the time. About 1 p. m. the main line moved out on our skirmish line, and as quick as they get their works up (about one-half hour), our regiment deployed as skirmishers on our brigade front, and our whole corps skirmish line moved forward. I think the 17th drove the enemy on our right at the same time. We took their skirmish pits along the whole front of our division, but they were very close to their main line and we did have a very interesting time holding them, I assure you. I don't think it was more than 75 yards to the main line of the Rebel works, and they in plain sight, only a straggling scrub oak undergrowth and a few large pines intervening. The Rebels came out of their works twice to retake their pits.

The first time the left of our regiment had to fall back, the brigade on our left giving way and exposing our flank, but we all rallied in a minute and made the Johnnies fairly fly back. The next time our brigade again broke, but our men held their pits, and the 26th Illinois, which was just coming out to relieve our regiment, faced its left wing for the pits occupied by the enemy, and went for them with a first-class yell. You should have seen the Rebels run. It did me a power of good. The other brigade then came back to their position, the 26th relieved me, and we are now ready for bed. We have been wonderfully fortunate to-day, only 10 wounded and none killed. The pride of the regiment, Frank Lermond, had his arm broken by a ball, but a resection operation will leave him a tolerably good arm. I think this has been as exciting and lively a p. m. as ever I saw. Terry's 24th Army Corps has come up, and lays about six miles back of us to-night.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 365-6

Friday, February 12, 2016

Diary of 5th Sergeant Alexander G. Downing: Thursday, March 23, 1865

An order from General Sherman was read this morning, stating that the campaign was over,1 and that we should now prepare to take a short rest. We left the rifle pits at 7 o'clock, marched fifteen miles, and bivouacked within five miles of Goldsboro. Our army is concentrating there, and we are to get supplies, rest up, and prepare for another campaign.
_______________

1 This battle proved to be our last, and it is known as the battle of Bentonville. We took part later in the surrender of Johnston's army at Raleigh, N. C. but there was no battle then, or before the surrender, only a little skirmishing. — A. G. D.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 263-4

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Diary of 5th Sergeant Alexander G. Downing: Sunday, March 19, 1865

We were off at 7 a. m. and marched ten miles through fine country. The roads were good and no swamps to cross. They had good crops here last year, and there was plenty of forage, so this evening we had our haversacks replenished. There was some heavy cannonading off on the left in front of the Twentieth Corps. The weather is fine.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 262

Diary of 5th Sergeant Alexander G. Downing: Tuesday, March 21, 1865

We advanced our line of battle a half mile, driving in the rebel skirmishers. Our loss was quite large in killed and wounded. All our artillery was brought into action and at times this afternoon the roar of cannon was fearful; but the rebels made no reply. Their loss in killed and wounded was large. There was some hard skirmishing on both sides. The Fifth and Twenty-fourth Corps under command of General Ord joined us this afternoon, thus reinforcing General Sherman's army. The army is in fine spirits for all that the men are poorly clothed and short of rations; but anything that General Sherman wants done now, they are willing to do. All know that when we gain this battle, we will have a short rest and a chance to draw some clothing, besides securing rations, for forage is scarce.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 263

Monday, December 23, 2013

Major General William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, March 26, 1865

ON BOARD STEAMER Russia
At Sea, Sunday, March 26, 1865.

The railroad was finished yesterday into Goldsboro and I came down to Newbern and Morehead City and am now in a fleet blockade runner on my way to meet General Grant at City Point to confer on some points, when I shall forthwith go back to Goldsboro and get ready for another campaign. There is no doubt we have got the Rebels in a tight place and must not let them have time to make new plans. They abandoned all their cities to get men enough to whip me but did not succeed. They may unite Johnston and Lee, when if they make the further mistake of holding on to Richmond, I can easily take Raleigh and the Roanoke, when Richmond will be of little use to them. If Lee lets go of Richmond the people of Virginia will give up. I regard my two moves from Atlanta to Savannah and Savannah to Goldsboro as great blows as if we had fought a dozen successful battles. At Bentonsville, Johnston attempted to prevent my making a junction with Schofield, but he failed and I drove him off the field with my own army without the help of a man from Schofield, also got all my armies at Goldsboro the 21st of March, only one day from the time appointed. I will now conduct with great care another move. I have all the army I want and can take an hundred thousand if I want them. . . . The ship is pitching a good deal, we are just off Hatteras, and I cannot write more. . . .

SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of General Sherman, p. 336-7.  A full copy of this letter can be found in the William T Sherman Family papers (SHR), University of Notre Dame Archives (UNDA), Notre Dame, IN 46556, Folder CSHR 2/21

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Major General William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, March 23, 1865

IN THE FIELD, GOLDSBORO, N. C.,
March 23, 1865.

I wrote you from Fayetteville. On our way thence the enemy struck our left flank and I turned on him and after three days maneuvering and fighting defeated him and drove him off towards Raleigh. The fight was near Bentonsville, 20 miles from here on the south side of the Neuse in the direction of Smithfield. I got here to-day and all the army will be in by to-morrow. Thus have I brought the army from Savannah in good order, beaten the enemy wherever he attempted to oppose our progress, and made junction with Schofield and Terry from Newbern and Wilmington on the 21st, one day later than I had appointed before leaving Savannah. It is far more difficult and important than the Savannah march. Besides the immediate results we have forced the Rebels to abandon the whole sea coast.

I almost fear the consequences of the reputation this will give me among military men. I have received one letter from you and one from Minnie, also a vast package from everybody. I now have a staff officer, Maj. Hitchcock,1 to answer them. I only have time to make general orders, and to write special letters. I must be more careful, as I find silly people to claim my acquaintance publish my letters or extracts. You know how hurriedly I always write and that I might be falsely placed by such things. I will be here some weeks. I should see Grant before assuming the offensive and I think he will come down. I could have time to run to Washington, but prefer to stay with my troops. It gives me great power with them to share the days and nights. I always encamp and am now in a shaky fly, open, with houses all round occupied by Rebels or staff officers. Soldiers have a wonderful idea of my knowledge and attach much of our continued success to it . And I really do think they would miss me, if I were to go away even for a week. I notice that you propose to take part in a Sanitary Fair at Chicago. I don't much approve of ladies selling things at a table. So far as superintending the management of such things, I don't object, but it merely looks unbecoming for a lady to stand behind a table to sell things. Still do as you please. I have nothing that would engross the profits — my saddlebags, a few old traps, etc. I could collect plenty of trophies but have always refrained and think it best I should. Others do collect trophies and send home, but I prefer not to do it.

I have no doubt that you will be sufficiently gratified to know that I have eminently succeeded in this last venture, and will trust to luck that in the next still more hazardous I will be again favored. I don't believe anything has tended more to break the pride of the South than my steady persistent progress. My army is dirty, ragged and saucy. I have promised them rest, clothing and food, but the railroads have not been completed as I expected and I fear we may be troubled thereby. I am just informed that the telegraph line is finished from the sea to this place, so our lines of communication will be shortened. Strange to say we are all in fine health and condition, only a little blackened by the pine smoke of our camp fires. I would like to march this army through New York just as it appears today, with its wagons, pack mules, cattle, niggers and bummers, and I think they would make a more attractive show than your fair. . . .
__________

1 Major Henry Hitchcock, judge-advocate on Sherman's staff.

SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of General Sherman, p. 334-6.  A full copy of this letter can be found in the William T Sherman Family papers (SHR), University of Notre Dame Archives (UNDA), Notre Dame, IN 46556, Folder CSHR 2/21

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Colonel William Smyth

THIRTY-FIRST INFANTRY.

William Smyth was born in the year 1824. England, Scotland and Ireland are all represented among the Iowa colonels. Colonel William Smyth is the Irish representative.

His history, so far as I know it, is briefly as follows: He was born in Ireland, and emigrated to this country about the year 1838. A year or two later, he settled in Linn county, Iowa, where he has made his home ever since. He is one of the oldest residents of that county. He came to the State ignorant and poor; but educated himself, and is now wealthy and one of the ablest lawyers in Iowa. He was at an early day district judge of what is now the Eighth Judicial District. He was also one of our Code Commissioners. He is reported as being the only able and responsible man in his part of the State who has no enemies.

William Smyth entered the service as colonel of the 31st Iowa Infantry, one of the twenty-two infantry regiments organized in the State in the summer and fall of 1862. His commission, like those of eleven other Iowa colonels, bears date of the 10th of August, 1862. At the time of entering the service, he had, I am told, no military knowledge or training: he was made a colonel on account of his worth.

The services of the 31st Iowa, up to the arrival of Sherman at Savannah, can be learned in the histories of the 4th, 9th, 25th, 26th and 30th Iowa regiments. It joined these regiments at Helena, late in the fall of 1862, and has served with them ever since. The expedition to Chickasaw Bayou; that up the Arkansas River to Arkansas Post, and also that to near the Yazoo, known as the "Deer Creek raid;" the march to the rear of Vicksburg, and the protracted and exhausting siege of the city; the return march of Sherman to Jackson, Mississippi, in pursuit of Johnson; the movement of Sherman's Corps from the Big Black up the river to Memphis, in the fall of 1864, and thence to Corinth, and the march from Corinth to Chattanooga; the brilliant campaign of Sherman from Dalton to Atlanta; the pursuit of Hood to North Eastern Alabama, at the time he began his disastrous raid north; and, finally, the grand marches from Atlanta to Savannah, and from Savannah to Raleigh, are all embraced in the record of the 31st Iowa regiment.

There is little in the march from Atlanta of special interest; for, previous to the time it was begun, the rebel forces had become so scattered as to make resistance, on their part, feeble and ineffectual. With the exception of the cavalry, the Federal troops marched with little molestation, and with an abundance of supplies. It was rather an agreeable campaign than otherwise. On the other hand, the march from Savannah to Goldsboro was one of great hardship. The advance was made in the face of a foe too feeble, it is true, to offer much serious resistance, and yet strong enough to occasion much anxiety. In addition to this, much of the country over which the march lay, presented strong natural obstructions. One who accompanied General Sherman in his last grand campaign, gives the following picture of one of the advancing columns; and the experiences of all were nearly the same:

"If the head of the column is checked by bad roads, it masses and goes to work with a vengeance, assisting the pioneers. The object is to get the roads in such condition that the artillery-trains can pass. If the bottom be good and the water not sufficiently deep to damage the ammunition in the wagons, and the swamp not more than one mile across, we always bulge through. If our column is checked by the enemy, it deploys into position and fights a little, while other troops push ahead and flank the enemy. If several columns are checked, we deploy into position, (nicest maneuver in the world) press the enemy closely at all points, and, if no advantage occurs, pitch in and whip them like h—1. General Sherman never bothers us upon such occasions, unless we are getting a little too far round, or not quite far round enough, or a little too brisk; for he knows precisely what we are going to do. But if we get a little too fast, he always modestly makes his appearance and says: "Hold up a little there, boys, d—n it! wait till the 14th gets fairly in;" or words to that effect. To be sure, he does not say this so that we can hear him; for he speaks through the regular channel; but then we all know what General Sherman says.

"Advancing in line of battle through woods, brush, over logs, through swamps, down embankments, and over woodpiles, is easily done, because we all know how. We never think of keeping step, or touching elbows — pshaw! Each man knows just where he ought to be, and keeps his eye upon the spot where, theoretically, he is until he gets there. This may cost him a dozen flank movements on his own hook."

Though the above is a facetious picture of General Sherman's progress through the swamps and timber of South Carolina, it has in it less of fiction than of history.

When Sherman left Atlanta, his plan was, to use his own words, "to leave an army in the West, under Major-General G. H. Thomas, of sufficient strength, to meet emergencies in that quarter, while he conducted another army, composed of the 14th, 15th, 17th, and 20th corps and Kilpatrick's Division of cavalry, to the Atlantic slope, aiming to approach the grand theatre of war in Virginia, by the time the season would admit of military operations in that latitude." Hardee abandoned Savannah during the night of the 20th of December, and, twenty days later, the 15th and 17th Corps began embarking at Port Thunderbolt for Beaufort, South Carolina, preparatory to marching "to the grand theatre of war in Virginia." Near Beaufort, the 31st Iowa remained in camp with its brigade till the 27th of January, when it begun the march inland. The grand army moved in three columns, the 17th Corps on the right, the 15th in the centre, and the 14th and 20th Corps and Kilpatrick's Cavalry on the left. As already stated, Colonel Stone's Iowa Brigade, to which the 31st Iowa belonged, was attached to the 15th Corps, whose line of march was nearly due north till arriving at Columbia, after which it was directed north-east toward Fayetteville and Goldsboro, North Carolina. On this march, the 31st Iowa with its brigade met the enemy at three different points — on the Little Congaree Creek near Columbia, at Columbia, and near Bentonville, North Carolina.

The first engagement occurred on the 15th of February, 1865. That morning the 2d Brigade of the 1st Division, Colonel Calleson, led the advance and encountered the enemy soon after leaving camp; but they made little resistance till arriving at the Little Congaree, where, having taken up a strong position, they brought the head of the column to a halt. Next in rear of Colonel Calleson's Brigade was Colonel Stone's, which was at once ordered to the front and deployed in line of battle. The enemy were soon flanked without serious loss, and a crossing over the Little Congaree secured. With little delay, the march was continued in the direction of Columbia, where the army arrived in the afternoon of the 16th instant. Columbia, the South Carolina Capital, situated on the north bank of the Congaree and just below the junction of the Broad and Saluda Rivers, was one of the prettiest cities in all the South. It was formerly the centre of South Carolina politics and South Carolina wealth. When, in marching upon the high ground south of the river, the sight of the boasted city first greeted the eyes of the soldiers, they were filled with wonder at its beauty. Immediately in their front was the Congaree, hidden from view by a broad belt of pine timber; but over the tops of the tall, waving trees were plainly to be seen the handsome buildings and the beautiful surroundings of Columbia.

Only the 15th and 17th Corps marched on the city. The 14th and 20th crossed Broad River at Zion Church, and marched through Alston, destroying the road, and proceeding thence in the direction of Winnsboro. Of the two corps before Columbia, the 15th held the left and the 17th the right. The 3d Brigade, 1st Division, of the 15th, was the first organized command to cross Broad River. It was to the same command that Columbia was formally surrendered by the rebel mayor, on the morning of the 17th of February.

On the afternoon of the 16th instant, General Logan had effected a crossing of the Saluda, and pushed a portion of his command to near the west bank of Broad River. George A. Stone's Brigade was sent forward to the river bank, with instructions to cross the stream that night in pontoons, and cover the crossing of its corps the next morning — perhaps, to move on the city; for that is what was done. "The point determined on for crossing, was about one mile above the wreck of the bridge, and two miles above the city. It was expected to have effected a crossing by mid-night; but the current of the river was so very strong, the engineer did not succeed in getting a line across till three o'clock of the morning of the 17th instant. At ten minutes before four, I sent over two boat-loads of sharp-shooters under Captain Bowman of my staff, with instructions to have them placed as skirmishers, with the centre of the line opposite the landing, and at least seventy-five yards distant. He had particular instructions to keep his men quiet, and not to reply to any firing of the enemy, unless satisfied they meant an attack before the column could cross. I went over with the advance — the 31st Iowa — and made a personal reconnoissance of the ground."

The landing was effected on a crescent-shaped island, one or more bayous separating it from the main land. Here Colonel Stone assembled his command, or all except a portion of the 4th Iowa, which had not yet crossed, and at day-light charged the enemy. The struggle lasted but a few moments; for the main rebel army had already abandoned the city, leaving only a few regiments to delay the crossing. Colonel Stone marched directly on the city, and when near the suburbs, met a carriage flying a flag of truce, and bearing the rebel mayor, Goodwin. Terms of capitulation were tendered and accepted, when the Iowa Brigade, of the 15th Corps, entered and occupied Columbia. It was the proudest day these gallant troops had seen since entering the war.

Of the capture of Columbia, General Sherman says, in his official report:

"Under cover of this brigade, [Stone's] a pontoon-bridge was laid on the morning of the 17th. I was, in person, at this bridge, and at eleven A. M. learned that the mayor of Columbia had come out in a carriage, and made a formal surrender of the city to Colonel George A. Stone, 25th Iowa, commanding 3d Brigade, 1st Division, 15th Corps. About the same time, a small party of the 17th Corps had crossed the Congaree in a skiff, and entered Columbia from a point immediately west."

The night following the capture of Columbia, the greater portion of the city was burned; not, however, by the Federal soldiery, but by that rebel wretch, Wade Hampton, who had, for this very purpose, flooded the place with cotton. A high wind and bad whisky were the confederates of his wicked scheme. The sight was heart-rending. Decrepit old men, and helpless women and children, rushed wildly from their burning dwellings, and cried most piteously for help; but, though the soldiers exerted their utmost, it was long before they could stay the devouring element.

From Columbia, the line of march of the 15th Corps lay through Cheraw and Fayetteville, and thence to Goldsboro and Raleigh; but in all this distance the 3d Brigade of Wood's Division failed to meet the enemy, till arriving near Bentonville, on the route from Fayetteville to Goldsboro. In the battles that were fought near Bentonville, on the 20th and 21st of February, the Iowa Brigade took an important part. These were the last battles of the campaign, and decided the fate of General Johnson's army, if, indeed, it had not been decided before. In the march to Goldsboro, near which place the armies of Sherman and Schofield formed a junction, the Iowa Brigade held the post of honor — the rear-guard of its division and corps.

The results of the campaign, as regards Colonel Stone's Brigade, are summed up as follows:

"This brigade has been in four engagements, with the following loss: killed, seven; wounded, sixty-four; and missing, twelve. We have captured and turned over to the provost-marshal one hundred and forty-five prisoners of war. In the capture of Columbia, South Carolina, we took about five thousand stand of arms, immense quantities of ammunition and ordnance stores, and released forty Federal officers confined there. We have marched four hundred and eighty-five miles, built fifteen thousand and thirty-seven yards of corduroy road, and destroyed three miles of railroad."

The following is from the history of the regiment:

"Colonel William Smyth commanded the regiment from the time of its organization till the 13th of August, 1863, at which time, Lieutenant-Colonel Jenkins being at home with wounds received at Vicksburg during the charge of May 22d, the regiment was commanded by Major Stimming, until August 22d, 1863, when Lieutenant-Colonel Jenkins rejoined his command, and commanded the regiment from that date to February 1st, 1864. Lieutenant-Colonel Jenkins then taking command of the brigade, Major Stimming commanded the regiment from that date to March 10th, 1864. Lieutenant-Colonel Jenkins then commanded it to March 20th, at which time he went home on leave of absence, and Major Stimming again commanded to April 20th, 1864. Lieutenant-Colonel Jenkins returning, he commanded until May 1st, 1864, when Colonel Smyth, having rejoined the regiment, commanded from May 1st to September 26th, being then detailed to command the brigade. Lieutenant-Colonel J. W. Jenkins has been in command from that date to the present time. * * The regiment was first armed with Prussian smooth-bore muskets; before taking the field actively, it was armed with Enfield rifle muskets. September 28th, 1864, it was armed with Springfield rifle muskets.

Colonel Smyth resigned his commission after the arrival of his regiment at Savannah. Accordingly, in the march from Beaufort, the 31st was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel J. W. Jenkins, who, during the campaign, was thrice complimented by his brigade commander for gallant conduct.

Colonel Smyth is a large man and rather portly. In his deportment he is kind, candid and dignified. His merit as a soldier consisted in his kind care for his men, and in his great bravery. He was not an apt tactician. I am told he would sit quietly upon his horse under a sharp fire of the enemy, while determining upon the proper command to be given to his regiment for some designated movement. Not long after entering the service, he was ordered by his brigade commander, while drilling his battalion, to throw it into a certain position. Not remembering the proper command, he rode up to his adjutant and enquired: "Lieutenant, what shall I say?"

SOURCE: Addison A. Stuart, Iowa Colonels and Regiments, p. 467-74

Monday, November 9, 2009

WILLIAM W. BELKNAP.


William W. Belknap, of Keokuk, was the second Colonel. Heredity asserts itself in the transmission of the chivalric spirit of the father to the son as well as in the perpetuity of those other traits, mental and moral, which the psychologist and the social philosopher love to trace with such minute care. The soldier is the sire of soldiers! Some men take up the sword as naturally as others do the pen or plow. It only requires the opportunity to develop the penchant. In every lonely, wind-swept country grave-yard there are the ashes of unknown Miltons. The epics that remained unsung upon their lips would have fired men to nobler accomplishments and purer purposes, — but the circumstances that shaped their destinies cast in different moulds those who would have sung them; the philosophers and scientists who have never been developed are unnumbered; the teachers worthy to lead men and the statesmen who might have guided the ship of state in any storm and who yet died unknown, is beyond count. But that spirit, which animates the soldier — that martial valor — rises to the surface under different circumstances, more untoward conditions. When the shock of war breaks upon a nation, when a crisis in civil affairs arises which must needs be arbitrated by arms, then there comes the stern sense of duty, coupled with the grim pagentry and high glory of war which fans into flame the latent embers of chivalry that have slumbered in the breasts of men. Here heredity and intellect assert themselves. The men born to command, command; those born to obey fall into the ranks and fill a noble part not less glorious for being less conspicuous.

Admitting the truth of the premises we have established it is not surprising that William W. Belknap was one of the earliest to enter the service in the war for the Union. It is not surprising that he achieved distinction and left the service with a brilliant record as a soldier and a leader. He came of a line of soldiers. His father, William G. Belknap, was for years a distinguished officer of the regular army, entering the service in 1813, when but a boy. He was appointed a third Lieutenant by President Madison and served with marked gallantry in that last struggle with Great Britain. Later he served in the Florida and Mexican wars, participating in all the battles fought by General Taylor — serving for a time on the staff of that officer and being brevetted Brigadier-General for gallantry in the battle of Buena Vista. While still in the service in Texas in 1851 he died.

In the town of Newburgh, New York, in 1829, the subject of this sketch was born, and there he spent his boyhood. When nineteen years of age (1848) he graduated from Princeton College; and at once entering upon the study of the law with Hugh Caperton, of Georgetown, D. C., he was admitted to the bar of the District by Judge Cranch in 1851. The young attorney, with a shrewdness of intuition which stood him in good stead later in life, saw the possibilities which yet lay before the Great West. Already the avenues to success at the East were blocked by the number of worthy applicants. The West, with its untried possibilities and its wider scope for the development of talent he preferred to the East, and in July of the same year in which he was admitted to the bar we find our young attorney hanging out his shingle in Keokuk. The professional ability of young Belknap commanded the respect of the older practitioners at the bar, and shortly after his location he formed a partnership with Hon. R. P. Lowe, who became afterwards Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State and later Governor. It was not long before the talent of the young lawyer began to assert itself in the new community. While there was a vigorous energy about the frontier communities which the later generations may have missed, still there was not the competition of talent which comes with older civilization and broader means of general culture. A strong, talented man must of necessity forge to the front and take precedence; so after his marriage in 1854 to Miss Cora Le Roy, of Vincennes, Indiana, (a sister-in-law of General Hugh T. Reid, who died in 1862), General Belknap began taking the local political leadership. As a result he was elected to the Legislature from Lee County at the first session held in Des Moines, in 1857-8. Then Belknap was an enthusiastic Douglas Democrat. It was the argument of war which changed his politics and made him a Republican.

The first real evidence of military spirit which the young lawyer showed was when he entered the “City Rifles," a crack military company which he afterwards commanded, and which furnished many officers of ability and high rank to the Volunteer forces. In its ranks, or as its Captain, he attained a proficiency in aims which profited him in the most trying times. There was little to indicate that the service seen in the streets and parks of Keokuk was ever to be useful in more earnest frays; but in fact it was the basis of that broader military education finished in the field and which eventually made of the Captain of militia one of the most brilliant commanders of his day. The "City Rifles" were famous for their proficiency in drill and their perfect discipline, so that when Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood commissioned Wm. W. Belknap as Major of the 15th Iowa Infantry in November, 1861, he placed over the raw recruits a man, who, though coming from the ranks of professional civilian life, was in point of ability and courage competent to lead his men forth to battle. He became Lieutenant Colonel on the resignation of Lieutenant-Colonel Dewey, August 1, 1802. On the promotion of Col. Reid to a brigadier generalcy he became Colonel on April 22, 1863, vacating the latter position when promoted by President Lincoln July 80, 1864.

The first battle in which the 15th engaged was Shiloh. It was a bloody baptism for the new Iowa Regiment and yet it was a glorious one. It was at that fight, too, that Major Belknap was wounded and had his horse shot under him. He also on that field came under the personal observation of the great leader — General Grant, and from that time dates the intimacy which was afterwards to so closely associate these two men. At Shiloh the discipline and drill of the men came into full play and that of none in the whole vast army were better. Major Belknap had himself drilled the officers in a hall in Keokuk previous to taking the field and as a result there was a degree of perfection which would have been highly creditable to regular soldiers. The intrepidity of the commander also inspired his men.

In the report made by Colonel Hugh T. Reid of the part taken by the Regiment in the battle of Shiloh, he writes as follows:

"Major Belknap was always in the right place at the right time directing and encouraging officers and men as coolly as a veteran; he was wounded, but not disabled, and had his horse shot under him, but remained on the field performing his duty on foot."

Colonel M. M. Crocker, commanding the 3d Brigade, Sixth Division, in the battle of Corinth on October 3, 1862, says:

"This engagement lasted three-quarters of an hour; the firing was incessant, and the Regiments, especially the 15th, suffered severely. I deem it my especial duty to particularly mention Lieutenant-Colonel Belknap who commanded the 15th Iowa. This Regiment was under the hottest fire, and Colonel Belknap was everywhere along the line, mounted, with sword in hand, encouraging, by voice and gesture, his men to stand their ground.”

Colonel William Hall, commanding the 3d brigade, Fourth Division Seventeenth Corps, in the battle of Atlanta, July 22, 1864, in which engagement General McPherson, the able and beloved commander of the Army of the Tennessee, was killed, speaks as follows:
"Where all officers and men did their duty I can make special mention of hut few. * * * * Colonel Belknap, commanding the I5th Iowa, displayed at all times the highest qualities of the soldier, cheering his men by his voice, and encouraging them by his personal disregard of danger."

General Giles A. Smith, commanding the Fourth Division, Seventeenth Corps in the same action, says:

"Many individual acts of heroism have occurred. * * * Colonel Belknap, of the 15th Iowa Volunteers, took prisoner Colonel Lampley, of the 45th Alabama, by pulling him over the works by his coat-collar, being several times fired at by men at his side. Colonel W. W. Belknap, 15th Iowa, displayed all the qualities of an accomplished soldier."

On July 29, 1864, General Morgan L. Smith, commanding the Second Division of the Fifteenth Army Corps, addressed General Giles A. Smith, commander of the Fourth Division, Seventeenth Corps, as follows:

"The General commanding thanks you for the assistance rendered him yesterday by sending to his support the 15th Iowa and 32d Ohio Regiments under the command of Colonel William W. Belknap. The General also thanks Colonel Belknap and his brave men for the efficient manner in which they performed their duty." This was the battle of Ezra Church, near Atlanta.

He not only had a minute and personal knowledge of all the details of company organization, but he knew every man by name and was more familiar with their needs than many of the company officers. As a result his men were devoted to him. A fact which strengthened the regard in which he was held, and which gave his men the utmost confidence in him, was the utter absence of personal fear on his part, and his willingness to share whatever dangers or hardships befel those he commanded. This characteristic was illustrated by a little incident which occurred while the Regiment was lying at Benton Barracks in St. Louis. A gentleman came in one day who was selling steel vests—delicately wrought shirts of mail which were bullet-proof. Major Belknap examined them approvingly, but firmly said, "I think they are good things but I could not buy one because I would not ask my men to go into a fight under any less advantageous conditions than I would. If the Government will furnish them to the soldiers I will gladly buy one."

General Belknap served in the Army of the Tennessee to the end. At the battle of Corinth he commanded his Regiment and was commended for his skill and gallantry by General Crocker in his report as Brigadier-Commander. Then-for a time he was on the staff of General McPherson, Corps Commander. He was conspicuous in the siege of Vicksburg and Atlanta, and in the latter campaign won his principal renown, being always at the front and enjoying full opportunities for all his tactical knowledge and natural bravery.

At the battle of Pittsburg Landing, Major Belknap was shot in the shoulder. In company with an officer of the Regiment he went to the landing and he found it crowded with disorganized men. Turning to his companion he said, "Don't let us go down there," and reversing his steps he rallied over a hundred men and went into the fight again. After the battle, General Grant placed him in command of the 18th Wisconsin Regiment which had lost all its field and many of its line officers.

He commanded his own Regiment in the battles of Atlanta on July 21,22 and 28, 1864, and in the bitterly contested battle of July 22 distinguished himself anew by the intrepidity of a single act. The fight had become a hand-to-hand one on the breastworks, the loss on both sides was terrible and every man fought as though the result depended upon his individual efforts. It was then that Colonel Belknap, catching the Confederate Colonel Lampley, of the 45th Alabama, dragged him over the breast-works and made him prisoner. Eight days after, Colonel Belknap was made Brigadier-General of Volunteers and placed in command of "Crocker's Iowa Brigade," composed of the 11th, 13th, l5th and 16th Iowa Regiments. General John M. Hedrick, of Ottumwa, lately deceased, succeeded to the colonelcy of the Regiment.

The march "to the sea" of that famous brigade under the command of General Belknap was a part of one of the most glorious epochs in the military history of this country. Then came the siege of Savannah and the final battle of Bentonville, North Carolina, which preceded the surrender of General Johnston's army. That Grand Review in which General Belknap participated in Washington, was a fitting climax to his brilliant military career, and there is but little to recall after that. He was assigned to the command of the Fourth Division, Seventeenth Corps,was the last commander of that famous Corps at the time of its muster out, and was brevetted Major-General early in 1865.

We said the war made General Belknap a Republican. It was at the election held in the field in 1864 that he cast his first vote with that party. That vote was for Abraham Lincoln.

At the close of the war General Belknap was offered a field officer's position in the regular army, but he declined it, preferring to remain in civil life, and in 1866 he was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue for the First District of Iowa. The collections for that District aggregated millions, its work was exacting and complicated, but when, three years later, he relinquished that office and the immense accounts were settled, it was found that there was a deficiency of just four cents, and not even an enemy had the hardihood to say he had embezzled that amount. It was regarded as remarkable that the difference should be so insignificant after years of duty and when the accounts were at once so large and so complicated.

The first really important public event — or at least the one which again brought him into conspicuous public notice — in the life of General Belknap after the close of the war, occurred in 1867 at the great reunion in Chicago. General Belknap delivered the address for the Army of the Tennessee in the evening and it was such a marvelous piece of fervid oratory, so beautiful in its rhetoric and lofty in its tone of patriotism and love, that the great audience, which embraced the most distinguished men of the Nation, was fairly carried away by it.

General Belknap was offered several high positions in the Revenue Service, by President Grant, which he declined, and was appointed Secretary of War by him in 1869, and served in that capacity until March, 1876, when he resigned. The records of his administration and the verdict of subsequent events show how well the duties of his office were performed. It was during the early years of his tenure of office that the measures for the reconstruction of the South were in process of formation and operation, and the number of delicate and vital questions arising were dealt with so skillfully that few of them ever needed readjustment. On the charge that he had used his office for personal profit he was impeached by the House of Representatives during a time of great excitement and the bitterest political enmities. The Senate tried the case and acquitted General Belknap. His friends of to-day are the ones who have known him best in his private and public life and neither the clamor of envious politicians nor the inuendoes of secret enemies have ever shaken their faith in his truth, his honesty or his patriotism.

General Belknap succeeded Governor Buren R. Sherman, of Iowa, as the President of Crocker's Brigade, a society of the old members being formed almost six years ago. It is a flourishing body composed of the men — now no longer lusty with the strength of young manhood, but veterans beginning to feel the weight of years—whom the General commanded.

The General resides the greater part of the time in Washington City where he has a large law practice in addition to being Iowa's Representative in the settlement of war claims. However, he still retains a beautiful home on the bluff at Keokuk, overlooking the great river.

He married in 1869 Miss Tomlinson, daughter of Dr. John Tomlinson, of Kentucky, who died in 1870, while he was Secretary of War. His present wife was her sister, and is a lady of much culture and grace. He has two children, a son by his first wife, Hugh Reid, who occupies a position of trust in the service of the Baltimore and Ohio road, and a daughter, Alice, by his present wife.

It is a grateful task to those who knew and honored him, to sketch the life of a man who, in spite of his soldierly bravery, is too modest to do it himself. General Belknap seems to have been one of those men less moulded by circumstances than he was adapted to the condition which created those circumstances. He was never in any position which he did not fill well. In civil and military life he was true to himself and his principles — the peer of any man — the sycophant at no door. His command was not so often "go" as it was "come." And in the future he will stand out as one of the boldest and grandest figures, that strong manliness, great intelligence, and a Nation's peril combined to produce.

MORTIMER A. HIGLEY,
1st Lieut. and Quarter-Master 15th Iowa Vols.
Brevet Major and Ass't Commissary of Subsistence.
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, May, l887.



The story of the Great Rebellion will be the fruitful theme of poet and philosopher down to the latest beat of recorded time. From the pen of the historian will fall great volumes of political philosophy, showing the play and clash of ideas, the friction of political opinions which resulted in the most stupendous civil war of the century. The military critic will write of tactics, of grand and minor strategy, and show how battles were fought and won. But there is a human side to this great military upheaval, and this is the side that lies nearest the hearts of the people. The flesh that was pierced and the blood that was spilled bring their harvest of sorrow. In some manner or form each family has its skeleton, whose grim and ghastly visage will not down at their bidding.

The sudden transition from peace to war will never be understood by this generation. To-day the people are prosperous and happy in civil pursuits, the country basks in the smiles of the profoundest peace. To-morrow the land is filled with armed soldiers who seem to have sprung from the ground in a night. Swords and bayonets flash back the light of the noonday sun; the air resounds with martial music and the voice of command. The very earth shakes with the tread of armed men. Companies and Regiments are organized and sent rapidly to the front. How these men bore themselves in the field is a story that should be told by every Company and Regiment.

But the interest and history of a Regiment centers largely round its Commander. Upon his intelligence depend their comfort, their lives, their good name. In William W. Belknap the 15th Iowa had a Commander endowed by nature with the rarest gifts for high command. By education, Belknap was a trained scholar; by instinct, he was a soldier. At Wagram he could easily have led the charge of Macdonald, a charge that routed a magnificent army and shattered an empire. At Waterloo he could have led the Old Guard with the same desperate valor of Cambronne. In his blood were mixed strange currents which seldom flow together.

He had in him the gentleness of a woman and the sturdy courage of the warrior. The hand that could indite the tenderest lines to the loved ones at home, could wield the sword like an Ajax. He had the voice of Stentor and the arm of Hercules. No word of bravado ever escaped him. Men who knew this polished gentleman in peace were slow to believe him what he was in war. In camp he is seen in the hospital, or in the tents with the soldiers, writing letters for those who are stricken with disease, or disabled by wounds. In discipline he was exacting to severity; delinquent officers were shown no quarter. Under his magic touch his Regiment stood like a wall of adamant at Corinth, Vicksburg and Atlanta. He knew every soldier by name, and every soldier knew him for a personal friend, and held for him an affection surpassing the love of woman. And yet this man, when the fight was on, seemed to have been created expressly by the Almighty to ride the whirlwind, and direct the storm of battle.

See him on the 22d of July at Atlanta. His camp is in the thick woods. He and three comrades are quietly eating their dinner. The pickets are driven in with a rush. The forest is in a moment filled with the smoke and blaze and roar of musketry. A great battle has begun, one that may decide the fate of Sherman's army. But there is no demoralization. That wonderful voice of magic power cleaves the air like the blast of a bugle and men are lifted by it to the highest plane of daring and duty. This brigade is on the extreme left, "in the air," unsupported, and this Regiment on the left of the Brigade. They are attacked in front, on the flank and rear. But they hesitate not a moment; they knew they were in the hand of a Master. They knew that a retreat meant the wholesale slaughter of their comrades and the possible rout of Sherman's army, and they determined to hold their position to the last man.

Here Belknap was in his glory. His alert military intelligence took in the situation at a glance. He seemed to be everywhere at the same moment, directing and encouraging the men, pausing only an instant to lift a Confederate Colonel over the breast-works With the ease with which he would land a trout from a rivulet of the Adirondacks.

For hours the battle raged, but the victory was ours. Here in this valley of death this Iowa Regiment, under the leadership of this magnificent soldier, added to the fame of the Iowa Brigade a name for dauntless heroism which the people of Iowa will never let die. The man who could produce such veterans, and inspire them with his own sublime and majestic courage, was a man of no ordinary mold. Since Thermopylae the world has seen no braver day.

This was Belknap in war. In civil life he has given the world a spectacle of moral grandeur no less deserving the admiration of mankind.

His impeachment was born in base conspiracy. Throughout the severe ordeal of a Senatorial trial, he bore himself with silent bravery. His conduct there and his manly demeanor since, captured his enemies, and fastened his friends more firmly.

A great orator has said, "the time will come when the world will pronounce Belknap a moral hero." With those who know the man and the facts, that time has already come. By his comrades, officers and men, he was loved and adored as no man was ever loved before, and they girt him about with his own bright baldric of honorable renown, crown him with the garland of laurel he has so fairly won, and commend him to those historic and immortal pages where stands the shining record of his country's glory.

The fame of Iowa in the war was surpassed by no State in the Union. Her valorous sons have filled her borders with a great wealth of widowhood and orphanage, but they have given her shield a resplendent lustre, a lustre upon which the coming generations of Iowa youth will gaze in admiration forever.


WM. H. GIBBON,
SURGEON 15TH IOWA VOLUNTEERS.
BREVET LT. COLONEL.


Chariton, Iowa, May, 1887.


SOURCE: History of the Fifteenth Regiment Iowa Veteran Volunteer Infantry, p. 18-30