Diary of Private Richard R. Hancock: Sunday, March 30, 1862

I and two others being on picket within five miles of Chickasaw, and hearing the firing of artillery a little below, mounted our horses and went to the river at the above named place. The firing that appeared so near ceased before we reached Chickasaw, but heavy cannonading was still going on, we supposed, at Savannah, twenty-five miles below. I learned afterward that the firing that appeared so near was six miles below Chickasaw, and occurred as follows: A gun-boat was coming up the river with a sounding skiff in advance. Some Confederate cavalry, being near the river, killed one man in the skiff. The gun-boat then fired a few shots, without doing any harm, so far as I know.

SOURCE: Richard R. Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee Confederate Cavalry, p. 138-9

Diary of Private W. J. Davidson, January 23, 1863

An anecdote is told of James B. Wilson, of the Forty-first, during the late fight at Vicksburg, which should have appeared in its proper connection.

The Yankees used to deride our Tennessee boys while in prison, at Camp Morton, with the epithet of "Butternuts," on account of their clothing. At the fight at Chickasaw Bayou, one Tennessee regiment (the Third, I think) repulsed six or eight Federal regiments, capturing five stands of colors and five hundred prisoners, besides killing a great number. During the action the enemy's sharp-shooters killed one of our field officers, of which fact they seemed to be aware. As they were being brought in, Jim Wilson remarked, "You ran against the Butternuts, did you?" "Yes," replied a saucy fellow, "yes; and we picked out the kernels (colonels) too."

SOURCE: Edwin L. Drake, Editor, The Annals of the Army of Tennessee and Early Western History, Vol. 1, p. 22

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: December 29, 1862

We have a dispatch from Vicksburg at last. The enemy, 25,000 strong, were repulsed three times yesterday, and finally driven back seven miles, to their gun-boats. It was no battle, for our loss was only 30, and that of the enemy 400. It will be fought to-day, probably.

It is said an attempt will be made this week on Weldon, as well as Charleston.

Our Morgan has been in Kentucky again, and captured 1200 men. Glorious Morgan!

The accounts from the United States are rather cheering. The Herald proposes a convention of all the “loyal States,” that reconstruction may be tried in that way. A dispatch from Tennessee says, even the New York Tribune expresses the opinion that our independence must be recognized. The Philadelphia Press proposes another route to Richmond via the rivers, and thinks Richmond may be taken yet, and the rebellion crushed.

The surgeon in charge of the Howard Hospital reports that the small-pox is greatly on the increase, and terminating fatally in almost every case. He says men die of it without eruptions on the surface, the disease striking inward. It is proposed to drive away the strangers (thousands in number), if they will not leave voluntarily. There are too many people here for the houses, and the danger of malignant diseases very great.

My vaccination was not a success; very little inflammation and a small scab being the only evidences. But I have a cough, and much lassitude.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 226

Brigadier-General Thomas Kilby Smith to his sister Helen, January 1, 1864

Headquarters First Brigade,

Fourth Div., Seventeenth Army Corps,

Department Of The Tennessee,

“Camp Kilby” 1n The Field, January 1, 1864.

My Dear Sister Helen:

The weather in this neck of woods has been most charming, warm and balmy, until night before last, when after a most terrific rainstorm, the full benefit of which your brother received, riding that day forty miles or more, the wind changed to the north, and suddenly there came a flurry of snow followed by freezing and most bitter high wind. I never felt more intense cold anywhere. I don't know the condition of the thermometer, but everything about me has been frozen up, ink, ale — everything that will freeze — and to-day, although the sun shone bright, there was no sign of thaw. It is by far the coldest weather I have experienced for more than two years. It is exactly a year ago to-day since we withdrew from “Chickasas Bayou,” within six or eight miles from here after one of the severest contested battles I have been in. I little thought to be here, that day, now. It has been a year of remarkable events to our country and to me.

I send you a few old books that have been my solace in many a weary hour past; don't scorn them because they are old. “Old wine, old books, old friends,” you know — and each one of them I send you has a legend to me, associations that make it dear, and, therefore, for my sake, you will keep them as a little more precious, giving all of the family who wish a taste of their contents, for they all have intrinsic worth; you will note a memorandum in some from whence they came, etc.

For a whole month past I have been in the wilderness, so I can write you no stirring story. I left a life in Natchez that almost realized a fairy tale; this could not last long, and on some accounts I am glad it is over. I am again in the front, though it was pleasant, while it lasted, to sit in '”fayre ladye's bower.” I wonder how you all look at home. I have hoped for cartes, but I suppose it would be expecting too much from the enterprise of the family. I wonder if I shall ever again see any of you. Almost every night I dream of the dead, of father, and Walter, and Charlie. One or two nights ago my dream was so vivid. I thought I woke with Walter's hand in mine. Can it be that the dead watch over the living, and come to us in dreams; I sometimes think that this is true, and that for every friend we lose on earth we gain a guardian angel. I hope our dear mother is well and happy. I can see by her letter that in my children she renews her youth. She has had many and sore afflictions, but bears a brave heart. You must all do everything in your power to smooth her pathway. I have met many women in my experience of life — many beautiful, witty, sweet and lovely, some who thought they loved me — but never any woman like our mother, never any one with so many graces of mind and body.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 347-8

Brigadier-General Thomas Kilby Smith to Eliza Walter Smith, August 26, 1863

Headquarters Dept. Of The Tennessee,

Vicksburg, Aug. 26, 1863.

My Dear Mother:

I attempted some description of these people in their homes and their luxurious mode of life. I mean the opulent of the South, generally, without reference to individuals; and in return it strikes me, you give a little bit of a rub, evidently fearing that I should be seduced from my Spartan training, while treading their flowery paths of dalliance. You need not be alarmed. I have come back to my narrow cot and canvas roof without one pang of regret. I enjoy luxury for the brief season it is accorded me, but I know it only tends to enervate. On many accounts, I like the South, but its influences are baneful, its atmosphere, physical and moral, poisonous, except to those who have been purged and purified by misfortune and the stern necessity for exertion; whose constitutions of iron have been hammered into steel. I remember the rockbound shores of New England perfectly. The icy crags over which, with iron spikes to my shoes, I have toiled and clambered on my way to and from school in midwinter. Do you quite remember, I was but six years old when I made those journeys of two miles to Master Manley's from the “Sanderson Beach,” as I used to call them; that was before Walter was born.

I have been brought to a most abrupt stop in my proceedings and hardly know how to resume my thread. You must pardon my discursive epistles. I have this moment been handed your favor of 14th inst. Mrs. Sherman is on a visit to her husband. I went out there a day or two ago to make a call upon her. She spoke of you all with much interest, and regretted her previous inability to visit you; hoped to be able to do so upon her return. She is a very charming person.

There are two brilliant examples now before the nation standing out in bold relief, in fact before the whole civilized world; their history is good for little boys to know. Let my sons ponder upon it. One is General Grant and the other General Banks. Both were born of very poor parents, both had to labor hard for a livelihood in the country in their boyhood. General Grant's father lived in Brown County, Ohio, near Georgetown. The first money he ever earned or that was paid to him, was for a load of rags, that with great enterprise he gathered together in and about the town, drove to Cincinnati, a distance of forty miles, in a two-horse wagon, by himself, sold for fifteen dollars, and returned triumphant. He had his money in silver and he was the richest boy in all that section of country. This was before he was twelve years old, and as the enterprise originated with himself, and was carried out successfully, notwithstanding the difficulties of bad roads, the winter season, his diminutive stature, it perhaps gave as good evidence of great generalship as anything he has done since. He went to West Point from the village school and graduated as the best rider of the academy — the best, because the boldest. After he had been brevetted three times for his gallantry in Mexico, he had to resign a captaincy because he was too poor to support his family; went to farming near St. Louis, and there was not ashamed to drive his own team loaded with wood to the city. He came into the service again as captain of Volunteers. He has told me himself of these things, and that his best training was before he went to the military academy. I do not want my boys to be afraid to work. I want them to ride and shoot and fish and to know how to do it all well, and above all not to be afraid of anything or anybody but God, or afraid to do anything but tell a lie, and no matter what they do, they must not be afraid to tell of it. They must never take an insult from any boy or man. If a girl or woman insult them laugh at or kiss her. Never quarrel; if there has to be a word or a blow, let the blow come first. But I was going to write a word about General Banks. His father was a woodsawyer;  . . . his boyhood was of toil, privation, and mortification, yet to-day he is one of the most courteous, gentle, kindly men in all the world. He has done for himself what no teachers could have done for him, however high their salary or brilliant their reputation. These are dazzling instances, but they are exponents of a fact. This war has brought out a latent talent, a hidden strength of character in the individual, that astounds the world, but we almost invariably find it exhibited among those who in their early years have been compelled to depend upon themselves for thought and action.

In my last to my wife, I said I should write next from Cairo or Memphis, but no sooner had I despatched that letter than I received intelligence which caused a change in my movements. I shall remain here till General Grant returns. The weather has been very pleasant for some time past, nights cool enough for two blankets. I am sitting now in a very wet tent, with my feet propped up to keep them out of the water; it is raining very hard and is quite cold. I am most agreeably disappointed in the summers of the South; take them, if the two seasons I have experienced are a test, from end to end, they are more pleasant than our own.

I received three or four days ago, a notice from the Secretary of War that the President has appointed me brigadier-general, my rank to date from the 11th Aug. “for gallant conduct and service in the field.” This I suppose applied to my assaults of the 19th and 22d May, upon the enemy's fortifications at Vicksburg. “Shiloh” and Russell's House, Corinth, Chickasas Bayou, Arkansas Post, all I suppose went for naught, or what is more probable, the President never saw my papers. I don't know how he could get over the petition of my command endorsed by my commanding generals. The assault of the 19th was the most murderous affair I was ever in, but I have led troops in battles that lasted much longer and where I have lost more men, and in which I have been as much exposed.

I have had congratulations and serenades and all that sort of thing galore, for, as is not unusual, I have found in my case that a prophet has honor save in his own country. I have some friends and pretty warm ones in the army. My old command is encamped about eighteen miles from here near Black River, and General Sherman is not far away from them. He got news of my appointment by telegraph and rode over to tell them the news, whereat there was a perfect yell. The old fellow was about as glad as the boys from all I hear, and together they had a love feast. I suppose you have heard of the appointment through the papers, though of course it is under a misnomer, and it will be old news to you.

General Grant has been away the last ten days and there is hardly anybody at headquarters but myself. I am looking for him every day, and upon his return shall be somewhat relieved.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 330-3

Colonel Thomas Kilby Smith to Elizabeth Barnett Smith, April 9, 1863

Headquarters Second Brigade, Second Div.,

Fifteenth Army Corps,

“Young's Point,” La., April 9, 1863.

My Dear Bessie:

How is the little baby brother? I think of him a good deal, and how anxious you all must have been for his recovery. I have had something to worry me here too in my other great family. I have a good many children to look after here, and many of them get sick and some of them die. Perhaps mother will recollect a letter she received from my aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Seeds, a letter, I think, she did not answer, but which was written just after the battle of Chickasas Bluffs to apprise her of my safety. The writer was a brave, gallant young man of singular beauty and fine address, a graduate of Delaware College, who had enlisted in my old Zouave regiment as a private and from principle, for his father was rich. A long time I sought promotion for him, and at last succeeded, and when I had obtained his commission, I placed him on my staff to have him near my person. He rode well and boldly, with a firm seat and a light hand and in both battles staid by my side, never leaving me but to take an order. At Arkansas Post he was so dashing and conspicuous as to bring cheers from both armies. Well, when we debarked at “Young's Point” I was harassed with much responsibility, and far in front had to fight the enemy, and the elements, and the great Mississippi River, and for two days and two nights hardly dismounted save to change horses. I forgot or was careless to think that my aides were not iron, or steel, or capable of my own endurance, and instead of changing them as I changed my horses, let them stay with me, and the third day they sickened, and poor Frank never got well. He pined and weakened day by day — wouldn't give up, game to the very last — and I nursed him as best I could in his tent, but it was very cold and wet, raining almost every day. His disease was typhoid, not much pain, but wasting fever, and the poor fellow would come out with his overcoat and sit shivering by the camp fire between the showers; couldn't drink whiskey, or smoke tobacco, our only luxuries; couldn't eat, and would lie awake all night, and listen to the shells hissing over us (for we were close to the canal and within range of it, and in those early days of the siege they harassed us) and look up at me with his great eyes glistening with fever. I had no comfort for him, only a word of cheer, but I didn't think he would die, and so at last when we thought he was a little better, and he had been sick four long weeks, I had him carried down to the boat on a stretcher, placed on what they call a hospital boat — that is, a steamer with the whole cabin fixtures taken out, no state rooms, but in their place, long lines of cots, and some boats carry a thousand. There I disposed him as comfortably as I could and took leave, he weeping, for he was tenderly attached to me, and I gave him letters to you all, told him to go to the house and you would nurse him and when he got well to come back, and we would ride together again in battle, saw that he had some money and left him, and to-day they write me he is dead. He only got as far as Memphis; relapse, hospital, and — “he has fought his last battle.”  Only twenty-five, tall, finely formed, beautiful bright chestnut hair, red chestnut, frank open countenance, the soul of honor; and so they drop away from me, and all my best men, all I love most, are shot down or die.

Did I write you about the flowers and the birds, the sweetest, most eloquent birds you ever heard, and the prince of all of them, the mocking bird, sings all the day and of a verity all the night long. You couldn't hear the mocking bird in perfection anywhere but here, and wild; I ought not to say wild, either, for the pert, game little rascal is as tame as a chicken; he’ll just hop out of your way, and that's all — but what a flood of song he pours forth! There's one fellow who has built his nest not far off upon the topmost limb of a fig tree, a little way from my tent, and there he has whistled since before reveille this morning everything that any bird ever whistled before him, making the welkin ring with his melody. He has to help the thrush and the red bird and the black bird and the rice bird; but altogether. They have a royal time of it while the figs are ripening and the roses bloom; the delicate sweet roses, we used to cultivate with so much care, pout their lips and ask for kisses in March, and keep on blooming on great bushes till December. All the monthlies, the Giant, Marie Antoinette, Souvenirs, beautiful white roses, such as you rarely see, and all, almost without cultivation, perfume the air, with woodbine and every variety of honeysuckle all out now. The weather is perfectly delicious, neither too warm nor too cold, just right for a blanket or two at night, a dashing gallop in the morning, a cool walk on the parade at eventide; moonlight such as you never dreamed of, and oh, such sunsets! I used to think they could get up a pretty fair performance of this kind at Mac-o-cheek, when I was young and romantic, and before you were thought of, but a sunset on the Mississippi is beyond compare; and to stand by the broad river side at night, when its surface is glassy and still, and by the clear moonlight see the reflection in the water, is worth several days' journey. This sunny South is very sweet; its clime almost genial. No one can wonder they love it, and my theory of the war now is just to go on and take it. I approve of colonizing as we go, open the crevasse and let the Northern hordes flood through, and like the waters of the great river spread over the plain not to return again to the parent rills, but to fertilize and fructify the earth.

I have been quiescent and still for eight or ten days, a good while for me, and am disciplining and drilling my soldiers in a beautiful and most convenient camp. Upon so spacious a plain I can pitch the tents of my whole brigade in the rear of a continuous color line, when all the regiments are out on dress parade. I assure you it is a pleasant sight these pleasant evenings. In the intervals of drill, the men play ball, the whole plain is carefully polished and smooth as a floor. How long we shall enjoy our pleasant rest nobody knows. I suppose we must look out for the gallinippers next month. We had already one or two little tastes of their quality.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 285-8

Colonel Thomas Kilby Smith to Eliza Walter Smith, April 3, 1863

Headquarters Second Brigade, Second Div.,

Fifteenth Army Corps,

Camp Before Vicksburg, April 3, 1863.

My Dear Mother:

We are fully aware of the feelings toward Sherman. We know the antagonism against the Army of the Southwest. We know the efforts of traitors at home, and those who are not called traitors but who nevertheless would rejoice at the failure of his army to open the Mississippi, jealousy is rampant; war, more terrible civil war than we have yet known, will desolate the North as well as the South. My friends at home will remember my prophecies two years and one year ago. The rebellion, revolution, call it what you will, is not understood.

David Stuart has been rejected by the Senate. He is now neither general nor colonel, and is only waiting from day to day an order to relieve him from his command. Of course it will affect me and at once. He was my immediate ranking commander, and his place will be filled, I suppose, by Frank Blair. I shall not be immediately affected in my command — that is, I shall retain my brigade — but aside from this I am seriously and personally grieved. General Stuart has been my near, dear, and most intimate friend; his place as such to me in the army can never be filled. Of splendid genius, most liberal education, wonderful accomplishments, as scholar, orator, lawyer, statesman, and now soldier. With the courage and chivalry of a knight of old, and the sweetness and fascination of a woman, he won me to his heart, and no outrage . . . has affected me more than his rejection. I have no patience to write about it or think about it. The blow was unexpected by all of us. Generals Grant and Sherman, Stuart and I never thought of such a thing — could not guard against it. When I first reported at Paducah with my regiment to General Sherman, at my own request, for I had known him in Washington, I was brigaded with him. We went directly into service and together. We fought side by side at the battle of Shiloh, till he was wounded, when I assumed his command. We made all the advances to Corinth together and rode side by side in the long marches through Tennessee. We fought at Chickasas Bayou and at Arkansas Post, and advanced together at “Young's Point.” Many and many a long night's watch I made with him, many a bivouac in the open air through night and storm and darkness, always sharing our canteens and haversacks. Had I been killed he would have perilled life to save my body. Was my honor assailed, he the first to defend it; little I could ask of him he would not grant, and when I say to you that he was really the only real, true, thoroughly appreciative friend I have in the army who I care much about, you may imagine how irreparable is my loss. His character is not well understood in the community, because an unfortunate notoriety attached to him in the . . . case.

His own sufferings therein turned him prematurely gray in a very few months. His father was a partner of John Jacob Astor in the celebrated American Fur Company, and made for Astor ten millions of dollars. He was educated at Andover and in Boston, and was the protégé of Mrs. Harrison Gray Otis. He was brought into life very early, and married into the Brevoort family in New York, but being a great favorite of General Cass, was brought into politics in Michigan. At a very early age he was Prosecuting Attorney of Detroit, and immediately afterwards represented the Detroit district in Congress; there I made his acquaintance. He abandoned political life to take the solicitorship of the great Illinois Central Railroad, which gave him the control of the railway influence of the entire State and Northwest; and he abandoned stipulated salaries of eighteen thousand dollars per annum to enter the service, having expended upwards of twenty thousand dollars to put two regiments into the field. He has travelled largely in Europe and in Canada; his family are in the army and navy, he is exceedingly familiar with military life and has a most decided taste for it. His record is clean and bright, one to be proud of; he exerts a wider and better influence than any other man in this army, and why he should have been thrown over is a mystery.

The roses are blooming here and the figs are as large as marbles, the foliage is coming out green and the mocking birds hold high carnival. This is a famous country for flowers and singing birds. My horses are all well. If there was any safe opportunity, and I thought you could manage them, I would send two or three home; they are very high-strung and want a master's hand. Bugles and bayonets don't tend to depress the spirits of a good horse, and mine are the best in the army.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 283-5

Colonel Thomas Kilby Smith to Elizabeth Budd Smith and Eliza Walter Smith, January 30, 1863

Headquarters Second Brigade, Second Division,

Fifteenth Army Corps,

“Young's Point,” Before Vicksburg, Jan. 30, 1863.

My Dear Wife And Mother:

I have your letters, mother's of the 15th and 18th and wife's of 22d inst. I can imagine your anxiety, and regret you could not sooner have heard of my safety and well being. But you were not born to be a soldier's wife and mother. You must keep up brave hearts; none of us can die but once; as well in the battle as in bed. I hope my life may be spared to comfort you for many years to come, and assure you that I will not unnecessarily, or otherwise than in the strict performance of my duty, expose a life dearer to others than it deserves, far dearer to them than to me, and you must write me cheeringly. Give me words of comfort and good cheer. We need comfort, for we are in a pretty tight place at the present writing; camped just in front of that famous ditch of Butler's that the papers made so much fuss about last year and in the full view of Vicksburg, about two miles, including the width of the river, from my tent. As I write, its white towers and steeples and window panes gleam in the light of the setting sun. It's the Gibraltar of America, and we shall have a good time taking it, I guess; but nil desperandum; we shall try. I believe I wrote you some account of the affairs at Chickasas Bayou, and at Post Arkansas. My troops behaved remarkably well in both engagements, though I lost rather more than my share. I stand well enough with the army here, but have not had the luck to do anything brilliant enough to make me brigadier, except so far as they can give it to me by brevet. I do most earnestly want the rank, and think I have honestly earned it, but suppose I must exercise patience and wait. My health is pretty good. Indeed I always feel well while the weather is cool and the past three or four days have been lovely. In the immediate personal superintendence of large works, I am in the saddle constantly.

My horses are peculiar, and I ride hard in battle and latterly with a large command have had to spread myself over the field. This was a good deal the case at Chickasas. Morgan L. went over almost the first pop, while I had run the gauntlet half a dozen times before him and was over the same ground where he fell for hours afterwards and always under fire. The newspaper reports are all false; there is scarcely any coloring of truth to them. I am always confounded with Morgan L. and his brother Giles A. I am utterly lost in the obscurity of the name. My only salvo is in the official reports; there alone can I be identified, and in an official report the bare detail alone is permitted. I have sent you two from my immediate commanding officer. General Sherman's I have not yet seen, but am told that I receive therein flattering mention. I have tried hard to win my spurs, but my heart has been made sick by the terrible injustice of the public prints. I have nobody in particular to blame; I don't know that I have a single enemy among the newspaper reporters; yet I am always ignored. You must take the published stories of the correspondents with very great allowance. They are never eye-witnesses of the scenes they attempt to describe. This I assure you is true, and a moment's reflection will give you the reason why. They have no business in battle; there is no position they could occupy. In the din and confusion and smoke and hurly burly, the assault, the charge, the cannonading, the rattling of musketry, the changing front of long lines of troops, the rapid advance, the quick retreat for change of position, the trampling of cavalry, and artillery and orderlies' horses — where would the newspaper reporter, with his pen and wit or pencil and paper be? No, they are far off to the rear, picking up items from stragglers, and runaways and the riff-raff of the camp and army; with just enough knowledge of the ground and the main facts to form a basis, they draw upon their imagination for fancy sketches, and paint their words in glaring colors. My regiment did go in where none dared to follow, and by my superior officer was withdrawn after the performance of the most heroic valor. It was the astonishment of the army, and no mention is made of it. The 8th Missouri was not under fire at any time during the fight at Chickasas. Its former colonel, the present major-general, was wounded by a sharpshooter before the engagement fairly began. See the reports and the absurdity. But I won't dilate upon what you cannot well understand, and in which your heart cannot possibly be.¹

________________

¹ Readers of Field Marshal, Lord Roberts's interesting book, will see that trouble with the correspondents of newspapers besets military commanders in these later days also. There is great similarity in the expression of his views in relation to this subject in his account of the Afghanistan campaign.

"No one could be more anxious than I was to have all details of the campaign made public. I considered it due to the people of Great Britain that the press Correspondents should have every opportunity for giving the fullest and most faithful accounts of what might happen while the army was in the field . . .  What to my mind was so reprehensible in this Correspondent's conduct was the publication in time of war, and consequent excitement and anxiety at home, of incorrect and sensational statements founded on information derived from irresponsible and uninformed sources, and the alteration of telegrams after they had been countersigned by the recognized authority, the result of which could only be to keep the public in a state of apprehension regarding the force in the field, and what is even more to be deprecated, to weaken the confidence of the troops in their commander." — Forty-One Years in India, vol. ii., p. 166.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 266-8

Colonel Thomas Kilby Smith to Eliza Walter Smith, January 7, 1863

Headquarters Second Brigade,

Second Division, Second Army Corps, Army Of Miss.,

On Board Steamer "Sunny South," Jan. 7,1863.

My Dear Mother:

We are on the broad bosom of the Father of Waters, the shimmering moonlight streaming bright on the glittering waves that dazzle in reflection. I am surrounded by gay officers, the jest and the laugh and the song go round, but I get a little apart and look out into the night, and alone, with no commune for my thoughts save sweet memories of my mother. Two natures, two distinct beings seem blended in mine. Blood, carnage, and exposure to the elements, the dull and dripping rain at night, sapping the creeping marrow in my bones, the swamp, the forest, the noontide heat, prolonged endurance of fatigue, and wakeful watching, intimate converse with gladiatorial soldiers, the harsh reproof and bitter curse (alas, too familiar to my own lips,) the forcing of fierce and maddened spirits to my own will, at times as fierce and maddened as theirs, the groan, the imprecation, oftener than the prayer of the dying; the contorted limbs and fixed stare of the dead, who have gone to their death at my bidding — all this, and more, more than I dare to think or to write, makes me feel as he must have felt who fell from heaven. When plunged in the abyss of reflection, I look for my pure, bright angel, with white and fleecy wings, hovering above me, her outstretched arms, her beckoning hand, her mild and lovely eyes entreating, the mother of my early days. I change, even in thought with her. I become a child again, like the little child I used to see in some of the editions of the '”Common Prayer,” with the leopard, and the lion, and the lamb, that I used to ponder over instead of listening to the service long years ago, when I sat in the quaint old church. The Bible pictures all come back to me, the clouds that I used to watch through the open windows, when the Sunday was pleasant, shaping themselves into queer and fanciful forms, when I used to wonder if God really sat among them, as upon His throne, and if the little cherubims and seraphims, all head and wings as they were lined above the pulpit, were really all about him crying aloud, and if he ever spanked them for so doing, and from these child dreams I passed to others; soft and pleasant fancies flit through my mind; music and the bright fireside, whispering voices, pure, sweet, holy love, the greeting and the parting, the hopes and fears. My spirit changes; I lean over the top-rail and gaze into the deep and flowing river, to wonder if the scene about me is real, if I may not go to you within the hour and lay my head upon your breast and cry myself to sleep, with your dear hands clasped in mine. You are curious to know where I am and what I have been doing, and I can only give you commonplace descriptions of fleets and the great broad river, martial music, startling the wild fowl from the well-nigh deserted shores, the debarkation of the army, the bivouac, the attack at night, the fiercer conflict that raged for two days, the storming of the “imminent and deadly breach,” the heroism, the slaughter of the soldiers, the withdrawal to the transports — all this you will hear about in any penny paper, told with all the variations far better than my pen can portray, and your heart will sicken that such things can be. You will hear that my own band acquitted themselves nobly, that nineteen of them bit the dust. Stancher followers no man ever had. They say I did my devoirs. I don't know. The blood gets into my head in the hour of battle and I rage, though men say I am cool. The Generals have given me the command of a brigade. . . .  If I live, I shall hope to gather laurels; you shall not be ashamed of your son. I have a splendid command, five fine regiments of infantry, two full batteries of artillery (one of which is the famous Taylor battery of Chicago, and the best of the service), and a squadron of horse, nearly five thousand men, and the very flower of the army. The treason of these Southerners is almost atoned for by their dauntless courage; but if the political generals don't succeed in taking my command from me, they shall meet a “foeman worthy of their steel” the next time we are in battle array. Remember I am writing to my mother, and if an indirect trail of egotism or vanity is suffered to creep into my plain letters, forgive me.

De Quincey, in his confessions of opium eating, says, speaking of his reveries, “Often I used to see after painting upon the blank darkness, a sort of rehearsal whilst waking, a crowd of ladies, and perhaps a festival and dances. And I heard it said, or I said it myself, these are English ladies, from the unhappy times of Charles I. These are the wives and daughters of those who met in peace, and sat at the same tables, and were allied by marriage or by blood; and yet, after a certain day in August, 1642, never smiled upon each other again, nor met but in the field of battle; and at Marston Moor, Newberry, or at Naseby cut asunder all ties of blood by the cruel sabre, and washed away in blood the memory of ancient friendships.”  One of my lady friends in Memphis gave me a copy, and in casually turning its leaves to-day, the quotations seemed strangely apt to the unhappy condition of our own bleeding land.

I have said if the political generals do not take my command away, — a batch of them have come down with McClernand, who, you will perceive by one of the accompanying copies, has divided the command with General Sherman; two or three of them are educated military men, and have great reputation as soldiers; an effort was made to place one of them over my command; it may yet be successful, though they tell me my popularity with officers and men is very great, especially since the last battle; that some of them declare they won't fight under another leader, especially under an importation. The advent of McClernand is deprecated. What the result may be I do not know. General Sherman is pretty firm about the matter, now, and I do not think will go behind his order. The Administration is treating me badly, but “Time at last sets all things even, and if we do but watch the hour,” etc. Meanwhile, in my little authority, you must imagine me as I really am, surrounded by very considerable state. My staff consists of an adjutant, two aide-de-camps, four clerks, six mounted orderlies, and as many of a detachment of cavalry as I may choose to detail for personal escort; this, with my body servants, makes up a very considerable menage, and as I retain my own old regiment as a body guard, I move with very considerable personal force. My colors float very proudly. You know I was always given to the taking on of airs, and thereby exciting envy, malice, hatred, and all uncharitableness, which with evil speaking, lying, and slandering, are always rife in the army. Therefore, there will be many attempts at assassination (figuratively speaking, I mean), and these political pets will be after me. Whatever I've got has been literally dug and hewed out with the point and edge of the sabre, and the devil of it now is that I have to fight front and rear. I had a bitter enemy in . . .  who is now hors de combat, having been badly shot in the late engagement. I think he’ll die; he won't sit on horseback for a year anyhow. I had disposed of him pretty effectually before he went under.

I know of none other now of any consequence, but the higher one gets up the more he makes of them. It's damned hard they won't back me at Washington.

I received a day or two since a very beautiful letter from Mrs. Sherman, in which she spoke of “having had the pleasure of seeing my very elegant and charming wife and mother.”

I enclose General Stuart's official report, which you may show to as many friends as you please, though it should not be published. Also the order assigning me to command. It is not difficult for some people to get the rank of brigadier, but the same find it devilish hard to get the command to follow the rank, and are proud enough of two meagre regiments. Mine is a young army; I am immensely proud of it.

I won't write myself to ask for promotion. I don't want it unless it comes regularly and through my commanding general, but inasmuch as I have been clothed with the command, and that against the claims of rank; inasmuch as I must assume immense responsibility, expense, and exposure without commensurate reward, therefore, I think, I am right to urge through my friends for what is only my due.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 254-7

Colonel Thomas Kilby Smith to Elizabeth Budd Smith, January 3, 1863

Headquarters Fourth Brigade, Second Div.,

“MilliKEN's Bend,” Louisiana, January 3, 1863.

I seize a moment to write you a brief letter, for I know how anxious you all must be about me. The papers, who know everything, and more too, will have apprised you long before you receive this letter that we have had a fight, that we have met the enemy and that they are not ours; and you will imagine, of course, that I am captured, wounded and killed, but by the grace of God I’ve come out of the ruins unscathed. I went under fire Saturday evening, about six o'clock, 27th ult.; was in raging battle Sunday and Monday; and Sunday, very early in the action, Gen. Morgan L. Smith was shot pretty badly in the hip and had to go off the field. I think he’ll die. By General Sherman's order, General Stuart assumed command of the division and I of the brigade, but Stuart being unwell I virtually had command of the whole division during the fight of Sunday. After the first part of the affair was over, Gen. A. J. Smith, as ranking officer, took command. I had ten regiments and three batteries of sixteen guns before Smith came. My men behaved splendidly, especially in our own regiment, which, however, suffered a good deal, nineteen killed and wounded; my best captain badly wounded. Our loss is pretty heavy, but the enemy must have suffered terribly. I am now in command of the old brigade, composed of the 54th Ohio, 55th Illinois, 57th Ohio, 83d Indiana, and 127th Illinois, with two fine batteries. The 83d Indiana is a noble regiment, commanded by Colonel Spooner, of Lawrenceburgh; he knows your father well. I led his regiment under their first fire myself and can testify to their gallantry. I suppose the Administration will have too much to do to think of the promotion of so insignificant and humble an individual as me, but it is pretty hard to take the responsibility of commanding brigades without the rank. Yet this is the second big fight in which I've been compelled to it, to say nothing of minor skirmishes. My own little regiment is a brick; she'll follow me to hell at the word go. Never falters, never complains. We lay in that swamp, among the mud-turtles and alligators, a week, and short of rations, and not the first man whimpered. I had a fellow shot through the hand, shattering it and maiming him for life; the ball broke the stock of his rifle, and instead of complaining about his hand, he went hunting about for another gun, cursing the enemy for breaking his; however, all these incidents of battle are very uninteresting to you and it is really wonderful how soon we forget them. There is a party of officers sitting now at my right hand, laughing and talking and playing cards, whose lives, twenty-four hours ago, were not worth a rush, who have been in the imminent and deadly breach, who have lost comrades and soldiers from their companies, and who this moment are entirely oblivious of the fact.

The weather has been generally warm and pleasant for the past ten or twelve days; is now warm enough, but it rains tremendously. I am told, by those who know the climate, that it rains at this season of the year, after it once sets in, for six weeks, then storms for six weeks, and then rains again. I don't know how this may be, but God preserve us from having days of such rain as has been pouring down this.

They all seem to be looking forward to Christmas, with the usual fond anticipations of childhood, and with that they wish I could be with them. My Christmas was far away, sailing on the Mississippi; my dinner, for supplies were very short, a homely dish of codfish and potatoes minced, with a relish of stewed beans. My New Year's Day was passed under the rifle-pits and batteries of the enemy in one of the vast swamps of the Mississippi, beneath huge cottonwood and sweet gum trees overgrown with the long peculiar moss of the country that flaunts in the breeze like funeral weeds. On Saturday night, while I was planting a battery, a huge owl — one of the species that make these swamps their home — flapped his wings right over me, and roosting in the tree above my head gave an unearthly screech and wound up with a laugh and prolonged ha! ha! ha! so much like the utterance of a human being as almost to startle me. I took it for an omen. Where will my next Christmas be, where shall I make my next New Year's call? The last has been an eventful year to me; for the past nine months each day has been filled with thrilling incidents. I should like a little rest. I should like to lie down and be quiet. I should like to have some one soothe my brow, and make me feel as if I were a little child again. That is a beautiful idea in Scripture, where we are taught that all must become as little children, before they can enter into the kingdom of heaven. It is almost heaven to feel like a little child on earth. But now my business is to slay and destroy, to exercise all my intellect in the destruction of human life and property.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 251-3

Major General William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, January 28, 1863

CAMP NEAR VICKSBURG, January 28, 1863.

... The politician thinks results can be had by breath, but how painfully it begins to come home to the American people that the war which all have striven so hard to bring on and so few to avert is to cost us so many thousands of lives. Indeed do I wish I had been killed long since. Better that than struggle with the curses and maledictions of every woman that has a son or brother to die in any army with which I chance to be associated. Of course Sherman is responsible. Seeing so clearly into the future I do think I ought to get away. The President's placing McClernand here and the dead set to ruin me for McClernand's personal glory would afford me a good chance to slide out and escape the storm and trouble yet in reserve for us. Here we are at Vicksburg on the wrong side of the river trying to turn the Mississippi by a ditch, a pure waste of human labor. Grant has come and Prime¹ is here and they can figure it out, but the canal won't do. We must carry out the plan fixed up at Oxford. A large army must march down from Oxford to Grenada and so on to the rear of Vicksburg, and another army must be here to cooperate with the gun-boats at the right time. Had Grant been within sixty miles of Vicksburg, or Banks near, I could have broken the line of Chickasaw Bayou, but it was never dreamed by me that I could take the place alone. McClernand or Grant will not undertake it. Not a word of Banks. I doubt if he has left or can leave or has any order to leave New Orleans. Therefore here we are to sit in the mud till spring and summer and maybe another year. Soldiers will soon clamor for motion, life, anything rather than canal digging. The newspapers are after me again; I published an order they must not come along on pain of being treated as spies. I am now determined to test the question. Do they rule or the commanding general? If they rule I quit. I have ordered the arrest of one, shall try him, and if possible execute him as a spy. They publish all the data for our enemy and it was only by absolute secrecy that we could get to the Post of Arkansas without their getting ahead. They did reveal our attempt to attack Haines's Bluff. I will never again command an army in America if we must carry along paid spies. I will banish myself to some foreign country first. I shall notify Mr. Lincoln of this if he attempt to interfere with the sentence of any court ordered by me. If he wants an army he must conform to the well established rules of military nations and not attempt to keep up the open rules of peace. The South at the start did these things, and the result has been, they move their forces from Virginia to Mississippi and back without a breath spoken or written. . . .

__________

¹ Captain Prime of the Engineer Corps.

SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of General Sherman, p. 237-9.  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 1/150.

Major General William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, January 4, 1863

ON BOARD Forest Queen,

MILLIKEN'S BEND, January 4, 1863.

Well, we have been to Vicksburg and it was too much for us, and we have backed out. I suppose the attack on Holly Springs and the railroad compelled Grant to fall behind the Tallahatchie, and consequently the Confederates were enabled to reinforce Vicksburg. Besides, its natural strength had been improved by a vast amount of labor, so that it was impossible for me to capture or even to penetrate to the road from which alone I could expect to take it. For five days we were thundering away, and when my main assault failed, and Admiral Porter deemed another requiring the cooperation of the gunboats “too hazardous,” I saw no alternative but to regain my steamboats and the main river, which I did unopposed and unmolested. To re-embark a large command in the face of an enterprising and successful enemy is no easy task, but I accomplished it. McClernand has arrived to supersede me by order of the President himself.¹ Of course I submit gracefully. The President is charged with maintaining the government and has a perfect right to choose his agents. My command is to be an army corps composed of Morgan L. Smith's old command (poor Morgan now lies wounded badly in the hip on board the Chancellor, and his division is commanded by Stuart), and the troops I got at Helena commanded by Fred Steele whom I know well. These are all new and strange to me but such is life and luck. Before I withdrew from the Yazoo I saw McClernand and told him that we had failed to carry the enemy's line of works before Vicksburg, but I could hold my ground at Yazoo — but it would be useless. He promptly confirmed my judgment that it was best to come out into the main river at Milliken's Bend. We did so day before yesterday, and it has rained hard two days and I am satisfied that we got out of the Swamp at Chickasaw Bayou in time, for now water and mud must be forty feet deep there. . . .  Regulars did well, of course, but they or no human beings could have crossed the bayou and live. People at a distance will ridicule our being unable to pass a narrow bayou, but nobody who was there will. Instead of lying idle I proposed we should come to the Arkansas and attack the Post of Arkansas, fifty miles up that river, from which the enemy has attacked the river capturing one of our boats, towing two barges of navy coal and capturing a mail, so I have no doubt some curious lieutenant has read your letters to me. We must make the river safe behind us before we push too far down. We are now on our way to the Post of Arkansas. McClernand assumed command to-day, so I will not be care-worn again by the duty of looking to supplies, plans, etc. . . .  It will in the end cost us at least ten thousand lives to take Vicksburg. I would have pushed the attack to the bitter end, but even had we reached the city unassisted we could not have held it if they are at liberty to reinforce from the interior. . . .

__________

¹ On January 2, Sherman had learned that McClernand had “orders from the War Department to command the expeditionary force on the Mississippi River” (Memoirs, I, 322). On January 24, Sherman wrote to his wife: “It was simply absurd to supersede me by McClernand, but Mr. Lincoln knows I am not anxious to command, and he knows McClernand is, and must gratify him. He will get his fill before he is done.”

SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of General Sherman, p. 235-7.  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 1/150.

Ninth Regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry

The ten companies of the Ninth Regiment of Iowa Volunteer Infantry were ordered by the Governor to rendezvous at Dubuque, as part of the quota of the State under the proclamation of the President dated July 23, 1861, and were mustered into the service of the United States on dates ranging from September 2d to September 24, 1861, by Capt. E. C. Washington, United States Army.

The Hon. Wm. Vandever, then a member of Congress from Iowa, was given authority by the President to organize this regiment from the counties composing his district, and he was commissioned by Governor Kirkwood as its first Colonel. The names of the field and staff and company officers, at the date of muster in, will be found in the subjoined roster, in which will also be found notations of the subsequent changes which occurred on account of death, promotion, resignation, or from whatever cause, together with a paragraph opposite the name of each line officer and enlisted man, arranged in alphabetical order, showing his personal record of service in so far as the same could be obtained from the official records in the Adjutant General's office of the State of Iowa, and the War Department in Washington. That some of these records are very imperfect, and that they may, in some instances, do injustice to the memory of the officers and men of this gallant regiment, is a matter beyond the control of those under whose supervision this great work has been done. Every effort has been made to make this compilation historically correct, in so far as the limitations as to time and space would permit; but, where the records of individual service may have been incorrectly given in the official returns and reports, and no other source of Information was available, there was but one course to pursue, and that was to follow the official records, which, in the main, will be found to be correct.

The last company was mustered September 24, 1861, and, two days later, the regiment, with an aggregate strength of 977 officers and enlisted men, was embarked on steamboats at Dubuque and transported to St. Louis, and, upon its arrival there, marched to Benton Barracks, where it received it first supply of arms, clothing and camp equipage. Here it remained until October 11th, receiving such instruction in military drill as could be given in so short a period of time. It was then ordered to proceed to Franklin, Mo., at which place regimental headquarters were maintained, while companies were detached to different points for the purpose of guarding the railroad from Franklin toward Rolla, Mo. During the three months in which the regiment remained upon this duty it suffered greatly from exposure to the inclement winter weather, and, like all new regiments, was subjected to much sickness on account of such exposure On the last day of the year 1861, the official returns showed a death loss of l7 and 7 discharged on account of disability, total 24; but on the same date it had gained 38 by additional enlistment, and 4 by transfer, making a net gain of 18, and an aggregate of 995. Of this number, however, many were on the sick list, and the hardships which the regiment was called upon to endure, during the active winter campaign which followed, still further reduced its fighting strength, and when it first went into battle it numbered but little more than half the aggregate above stated. January 21, 1862, the regiment was again consolidated, the companies on detached duty having been relieved, and was conveyed by rail to Rolla, Mo., and from there began its first real campaign against the enemy. Marching to Lebanon, Mo., it joined the Army of the Southwest commanded by General Curtis. Colonel Vandever was placed in command of the brigade to which his regiment was attached, leaving Lieut. Col. Frank J. Herron in command of the regiment.

Upon the approach of the Union forces, the rebel General Price evacuated Springfield, which he had occupied during the winter, and began his retreat towards the Ozark Mountains. Then began that remarkable march of General Curtis' army in pursuit of the enemy. The regiment started from Springfield on the 14th of February and, in less than one month, had marched over difficult roads, and much of the time through storms of alternating rain and snow, a distance of two hundred and fifty miles. Arriving at Cross Hollows, Ark., a detachment of three hundred of the regiment was sent upon an expedition to Huntsville — forty miles distant — with the purpose of surprising and capturing a detachment of the enemy stationed there as a guard for commissary stores: but, upon reaching Huntsville, they found the place abandoned, and learned that the rebel army under General Van Dorn was marching to the attack of General Curtis' army, which had fallen back from Cross Hollows and taken up a new position at Pea Ridge. Realizing the danger of being cut off and captured by a superior force, the detachment of the Ninth Iowa at once started to rejoin the command and, after a continuous march of sixteen hours, covering a distance of forty-two miles, it reached the regiment at 8 P. M. March 6th. With only a few hours of rest after this exhausting march, these men went into the memorable battle of Pea Ridge at 10 A. M., March 7. 1862.

The enemy opened the engagement by a fierce attack upon the Union lines, and the Ninth Iowa was in the thickest of the fight. The first attack of the enemy was repulsed, and the Union line advanced, but was in turn compelled to retire under a terrific fire of musketry, grape and canister. Thus the battle raged during the entire day, with alternating temporary advantages for both Union and rebel forces. There were occasional intervals, during which the men on both sides availed themselves of the opportunity to replenish their ammunition and to attend to the removal of their wounded to the rear. The fighting was most persistent and desperate, and in no battle of the war was the valor of the American soldier—upon both sides—more splendidly exhibited. While this was the first time the Ninth Iowa Infantry had met the enemy in battle, its officers and men exhibited the steadiness and bravery of veterans. Had this been the only service rendered by the regiment, it would have been entitled to the lasting gratitude of every patriotic citizen of the Union, which it was there defending against those in armed rebellion against it.

At night the survivors lay upon their arms, ready to renew the conflict at the dawn of day. At daylight the Union artillery again opened upon the enemy, and the fire was promptly returned. In his official report Colonel Vandever says, "At this point, finding ourselves exposed to a raking fire from one of the enemy's batteries on our right, we changed direction to the east. About this time, the First Division coming into position on our left, we joined in the general advance upon the enemy, the whole cavalry force participating, and the artillery co-operating. The enemy here broke into disorder, and the fortune of the day was decided in our favor."

The entire rebel army was soon in full retreat, and the battle of Pea Ridge ended in a brilliant victory for the Union army. At the close of his official report Major General Curtis especially commended Colonel Vandever and the gallant troops of his brigade, and says, "To do justice to all, I would spread before you the most of the rolls of this army, for I can bear testimony to the almost universal good conduct of officers and men, who shared with me the long march, the many conflicts by the way, and the final struggle with the combined forces of Price, McCulloch, McIntosh and Pike, under Major General Van Dorn, at the battle of Pea Ridge." At the close of his official report Colonel Vandever says:

Of the bravery of Lieutenant Colonel Herron, In Immediate command of the Ninth Iowa Infantry, too much can not be said. He was foremost in leading his men, and, with coolness and bravery never excelled, rallied them to repeated attacks of the enemy. Unfortunately near the close of the day on the 7th, he was disabled by a. painful wound, his horse was killed under him, and he was captured by the enemy. Major Coyl, also of the Ninth Iowa, acted with distinguished valor until disabled by a severe wound, and compelled, reluctantly, to leave the field. Adjutant William Scott also deserves great praise. Lieutenant Asher Riley of Company A, my Acting Assistant Adjutant General, deserves particular mention. Upon the fall of Captain Drips and Lieutenant Kelsey, of Company A both distinguished for their bravery. Lieutenant Riley gallantly took command and remained with the company to the end of the battle. Captain Carpenter and Lieutenant Jones of Company B also acted with great bravery, leading their company in the face of the enemy, and bringing off one of our disabled guns and a caisson. Captain Towner and Lieutenant Neff, of Company F, were conspicuous for their bravery. Both of these officers were severely wounded, when the command devolved upon Lieutenant Tisdale, who gallantly led the company through the remainder of the battle. Captain Bull and Lieutenant Rice, of Company C, also deserve particular mention, the latter of whom was killed near the close of the day, while the former was severely wounded. Captain Bevins of Company E was killed upon the field, and the command devolved upon Lieutenant Baker, who acquitted himself with great credit. Captain Washburn, and Lieutenants Beebe and Levrich of Company G, Lieutenants Crane and McGee of Company D, Captain Moore and Lieutenant Mackenzie of Company H, Captain Carskaddon and Lieutenant Claflin of Company K, and Lieutenant Fellows, commanding Company I, also Lieutenant Inman, were all conspicuous for bravery, under the hottest fire of the enemy. I should also mention Sergeant Major Foster and other members of the non-commissioned staff, who did their duty nobly. Many instances of special gallantry occurred among non-commissioned officers and men, during the trying events of the battle, which I cannot here enumerate. Where all did their duty so nobly and well, distinction would be invidious. I can only say that I feel deeply Indebted to every officer and man of my command for the heroic manner in which they have acquitted themselves.


The loss of the regiment was very heavy. Of the 560 who went into the battle, 4 commissioned officers and 34 enlisted men were killed, 5 commissioned officers and 171 enlisted men wounded, and 1 commissioned officer and 3 enlisted men captured, making a total loss of nearly forty per cent of the aggregate number engaged.*

After the battle the regiment had only a brief season of rest. Its next experience was a long, devious and trying march with the Army of the Southwest, through Missouri and Arkansas, covering six hundred miles and ending at Helena, July 17, 1862. During this march the weather was very warm and dry, and the troops suffered greatly from the heat, dust and thirst, and, on the latter part of the march, from insufficient rations. For five weeks of this time the army was cut off from all communication, but fortunately no considerable body of the enemy was encountered and it at last arrived safely at Helena.

Here the regiment went into camp, and for the ensuing five months enjoyed comparative immunity from the hardships and dangers of a soldier's life. It was, however, rendering valuable service in holding an important post, and the time was not spent in idleness. The officers and men utilized the time to the best advantage, in perfecting themselves in military drill and discipline, and, when they again entered upon the duties of active campaigning, they were splendidly equipped for the hard and continuous service which they were called upon to perform during the remainder of their term of service. While the regiment was in camp at Helena, a most pleasing incident occurred, which deserves permanent preservation in this sketch and is thus described by Lieutenant Colonel Abernethy in his "History of the Ninth Infantry":

At Helena a stand of beautiful silk colors reached us, sent by the hands of Miss Phoebe Adams, in behalf of a committee of ladies of Boston, Mass., as a testimonial of their appreciation of our conduct in the battle of Pea Ridge. They were guarded and cherished while in the regiment with religious care. After having been borne over many a proud field, they were, by the unanimous voice of the regiment, given back, riddled and torn — one to the original donors, the other to Brevet Major General Vandever, our original Colonel, who, by his bravery and decision at Pea Ridge and Arkansas Post, with the regiment, and by his honorable record thereafter in other fields, won the confidence and love of his regiment.


December 18, 1862, the regiment was again called into active service, this time on the lower Mississippi, and was assigned to General Thayer's Brigade of General Steele's Division of the Fifteenth Army Corps. It participated in the battle of Chickasaw Bayou, December 28th and 29th, where it maintained its good record for bravery under the fire of the enemy. Lieutenant Colonel Abernethy, describing the part taken by his regiment in this battle, says, "The regiment, though under fire the greater part of the 28th and 29th, was only engaged about half an hour of the latter day. While the hardest fighting was in progress, we were being transferred from a point above Chickasaw Bayou to where the main army was massed, reaching there only to go into position as others were falling back. We were soon withdrawn beyond the reach of the rebel batteries lining the hills in our front, and next day embarked, the attempt having been given over."

The regiment next went into camp on the Yazoo River above Vicksburg, where it remained until the close of the year 1862. The official returns show that, during the year, the regiment had gained by additional enlistments 54, and by apointment 2; total gain 56. In the same time it had lost in killed in battle 43, died from wounds 41, and from disease 37; total number of deaths 121; 178 were discharged for disability, and 8 had deserted, making a total loss for the year of 307. Its losses up to the 31st day of December, 1861, had been 24, and its gain by additional enlistment 42. It will thus be seen that, in the one year and three months that the regiment had then served, it had lost 331 officers and men, and had gained 98 by additional enlistment. Its losses thus far had aggregated nearly one-third of those originally mustered and gained by additional enlistment, while it had just entered upon the second year of its three years' term of service.

Early in January, 1863, the regiment was engaged In the movement against Arkansas Post, and on January 11th, when the attack upon the fort was made, it was in the reserve line, waiting for the order to move forward to the assault; but. before the order was given, the enemy raised the white flag in token of surrender, and the regiment had the pleasure of witnessing the fall of that stronghold without loss to itself. January 24th found the regiment again in camp at Young's Point, near Vicksburg. About this time, Colonel Vandever was promoted to Brigadier General, and the officers and men of the Ninth Iowa, while rejoicing in his well-deserved promotion, felt that they were parting from one of the bravest and most efficient commanders, and that it would be difficult to determine who should succeed him. There was an excellent list of officers from which to make the selection. Captain David Carskaddon of Company K was elected and became the second Colonel of the regiment.

Lieutenant Colonel Abernethy, in his history of the Ninth Iowa Infantry thus graphically describes the experience of the regiment for the remainder of the winter of 1863:

The history of the regiment for these two months of February and March is a tale of sorrow. The health of many of its members was already undermined by a six months' sojourn in the miasmatic regions of the Mississippi valley, and it seemed that but few could withstand the debilitating and enervating Influence of this insalubrious climate. The smallpox came now, for the first time, into our ranks. Scores of our number, hitherto stout and rugged, were prostrated past recovery, and now lie buried in shallow graves about the hospitals which once stood In that sickly region; while others only recovered completely, long afterwards, In the mountains of Tennessee and Georgia, or on the sandy plains of the Carolinas. The ordeal of these unpropitious months was the more grievous because it had all the evils of the battlefield, with none of Its honors.


Every true soldier will admit the force and truth of the above statement. The inspiration which comes to men in the midst of battle sustains them in the performance of deeds of valor, but when it comes to the struggle with disease and death, without the tender ministrations of relatives and friends, far from home and all its comforts, the men who endure and die, as well as those who endure and live, must be sustained by a fortitude and courage even greater than that which enables them to perform their whole duty when engaging the enemy in battle.

During the month of April, 1863, the regiment participated in an expedition to Greenville, Miss., and farther into the interior, in which it met the enemy in occasional skirmishes, but the object of the expedition was accomplished without severe fighting. Upon its return from this expedition, it entered upon the campaign which ended in the surrender of the rebel strongholds at Vicksburg and Jackson. Its movements and operations are described by Lieutenant Colonel Abernethy, as follows:

On the 2d day of May, leaving our tents standing at Milliken's Bend, La., the regiment started In light marching order for Grand Gulf, crossed the Mississippi, and commenced on the 8th of May the march In rear of Vicksburg. On the 14th reached Jackson, the State capital of Mississippi, and took part in its capture. Four days later, after some skirmishing in which we lost three wounded, the regiment took position In the outer works which environed Vicksburg. * * *

May 15th, after severe skirmishing, and a final assault, the regiment succeeded in getting and holding an excellent position, about seventy-five yards from the enemy's works. * * *

On the 22d of May, In line with the whole Army of the Tennessee, the regiment went first up to the assault. Its flag went down a few feet from the rebel works, after the last one of its guard had fallen, either killed or wounded, and its dripping folds were drawn from under the bleeding body of its prostrate bearer. In the few terrible moments of this assault, the regiment lost 79 killed and wounded, nearly one-third of the number in action. But that was not all. The assault had failed, and we found ourselves lying in the ravines, behind logs, contiguous to and partly under the protection of the rebel earthworks, above which no traitor could raise his head, except at the expense of his life. There we were compelled to stay until darkness gave us a cover under which to escape. Here I pause to pay the slight tribute of recording their names, to Captain Kelsey, and Lieutenants Jones, Wilbur, and Tyrrell, who fell while leading their companies to the assault, and to Captain Washburn, who was mortally wounded at the head of the regiment.

Our loss in the previous assault of the 19th of May was 16 men, and when, on the morning of Independence Day, the enemy came out and stacked arms and colors on his works, our total recorded loss in the siege was 121.


After the surrender of Vicksburg, the regiment participated in the siege of Jackson, and, after the evacuation of that place, took part in the pursuit of the enemy, and lost one man killed in a skirmish at Brandon. The regiment now went into camp on Black River, Miss., where It remained until September 22d, when it was ordered to Vicksburg, thence by river to Memphis, and from there by rail to Corinth, Miss., from which point it took up the line of march to Chattanooga, and entered upon another campaign which resulted in great success for the cause of the Union, and a crushing defeat to that portion of the rebel army against which the operations were directed. After a march of three hundred miles, during which the regiment had some skirmishes with the rebel General Forrest's troops, it arrived at the foot of Lookout Mountain, Nov. 23, 1863, and, on the 24th, took part in the battle above the clouds, and, later, in the battles of Missionary Ridge and Ringgold. Although not in the heaviest fighting in these three engagements, the regiment accomplished all that was assigned to it. Its losses in killed and wounded during the campaign aggregated 22. It now marched to Woodville, Ala., where it went Into winter quarters Dec. 29, 1863. During the year the regiment had marched 870 miles, and had been conveyed 1,300 miles by water and 100 miles by rail. In the same time, it had met with a total loss of 227 and gained by enlistment 11, leaving an aggregate of 510.

January 1, 1864, 287 men of the regiment re-enlisted as Veteran Volunteers for another term of three years, and under the terms of their enlistment were entitled to a thirty days' furlough, to begin after reaching the State of Iowa. They left Woodville, Ala., February 4, 1864, and reached Dubuque, Iowa, February 14, 1864, at which point they separated for their respective homes. March 16th found the veterans of the regiment re-assembled at Davenport, Iowa, accompanied by 125 recruits. They reached Woodville, Ala., April 10th, having marched from Nashville, a distance of 125 miles. A new supply of arms, clothing and camp equipage was issued to the regiment, and on May 1st, with Colonel Carskaddon In command. It took up the line of march for Chattanooga. In six days it had again reached the scene of military activity, and entered upon another great struggle for the preservation of the Union. The Ninth Iowa Infantry was constantly at the front, on the firing line, and in the trenches, and had its full share in the fighting during the campaign. The compiler of this sketch is compelled, by the limitation of space to which he is restricted, to omit the detailed account of the operations of the regiment given by Lieutenant Colonel Abernethy in his history, from which quotations have heretofore been so freely made. It must here suffice to say that, from the opening to the close of the Atlanta campaign, the Ninth Iowa Infantry displayed the same conspicuous gallantry which had characterized Its career In all the battles In which It had been engaged, from Pea Ridge to Jonesboro. Describing the close of the campaign, Lieutenant Colonel Abernethy says:

At Jonesboro, on the 31st of August, where we were attacked in vain, and for the last time, by the rebel army of Tennessee, we held our position easily, and with comparatively slight loss. The march thence to Lovejoy's Station, and back again to East Point, Ga., by the 8th of September, completed the campaign — a campaign which, for hard and continuous fighting, for severe labor and exposure, for long marches in the hottest weather, for duration and persistent obstinacy, is unparalleled in history. We had marched 400 miles, principally in the night, built 40 different lines of works, crossed three large rivers In the face of a powerful enemy, flanked him away from three of the strongest natural positions In the country, and fought the battles of Resaca, Dallas, New Hope Church, Big Shanty, Kenesaw Mountain, Chattahoochie River, Decatur, Atlanta, Jonesboro, and Lovejoy.

The regiment lost in the campaign since the 1st of May 14 killed, 70 wounded, and 6 captured.


The non-veterans of the regiment were mustered out of the service on the 23d day of September, 1864, the original three years' term for which they had enlisted having expired. For the re-enlisted veterans and recruits there yet remained the experience of the closing campaigns of the war, which, in some respects, were more remarkable than any which had preceded them. On the 4th of October the regiment was again on the march with the army which followed the rebel forces under General Hood through Marietta, Rome, Resaca, and across into Alabama, returning to the vicinity of Atlanta on the 5th of November, having marched 354 miles. November 15th, the regiment, then under the command of its senior captain, Paul McSweeney, began the famous march with General Sherman's army to Savannah and the sea. This remarkable military exploit was accomplished in 35 days, the distance covered being 400 miles. During the year, the regiment had marched 1,400 miles, and traveled by steamboat and railroad 1,900 miles. It had gained by additional enlistment 160, had lost in killed 14 and from other causes 214, leaving an aggregate of 442 on December 31, 1864.

The closing campaign — the trip by sea to Beaufort, S. C, and the march through the states of South and North Carolina — was full of interest and most worthy of being recorded in detail, did space permit. Colonel Carskaddon, who had been wounded at Atlanta, returned to the regiment, and was honorably mustered out by reason of expiration of term of service on February 14, 1865. While the regiment was marching through Georgia, Major George Granger had died in hospital at Nashville, Tenn., and Captain Alonzo Abernethy of Company F had been promoted to Major, January 1, 1865, and was now in command of the regiment, which he led successfully during the remainder of its service. After giving a detailed description of the events which transpired during the long and toilsome march, the Major thus describes the closing scenes in the history of his regiment:

Our severe labors, hardships, and exposures were forgotten in the pleasure of having taken part in this most magnificent of all our campaigns. The remaining history is briefly told. On the 10th of April started with the army to Raleigh, N. C, where we found the rebel leader suing for terms. When these had been given, the regiment started for Washington, D. C, via Petersburg, Richmond, and Alexandria, Va. Reached the latter place on the 19th of May, after a march of 293 miles in the last nineteen days, and 360 miles from Goldsboro, N. C. Took part In the military pageant of May 24th, which consisted of the review of Sherman's army In the streets of Washington. The regiment came thence by rail and steamboat to Louisville, Ky., on the 1st of June. Went Into camp and awaited further orders, which came July 10th to the effect that the remaining regiments of the army of the Tennessee would be at once mustered out of service.

Lieutenant Colonel Coyl had resigned June 17th on account of his having received the appointment of Judge Advocate of the Department of Kentucky. Major Abernethy was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, and Captain Inman of Company I to Major. On the 18th of July, the muster out was completed.


The regiment was then sent to Clinton, Iowa, where it was disbanded, and the officers and men returned to their homes.

From the time it started from Dubuque, three years and, ten months from the date of its final muster out, the Ninth Iowa Infantry had marched over 4,000 miles, and traveled by rail and steamboat 6,000 miles. During the year 1865, there had been added by transfer from the Twenty-fifth Iowa 53, by enlistment 15, from the draft rendezvous of the State 129, a total gain of 197. The total losses had been 45, leaving an aggregate of 594 at muster out.

In closing this brief sketch, the compiler again refers to the subjoined roster for the record of personal service of each officer and man of the regiment, in so far as it has been possible to obtain such record. As an organization the Ninth Iowa Infantry has a record of service unsurpassed by that of any regiment which the State sent to the field during the great War of the Rebellion.


SUMMARY OF CASUALTIES.

Total enrollment 1440
Killed 84
Wounded 385
Died of wounds 64
Died of disease 210
Discharged for disease, wounds and other causes 299
Buried in National Cemeteries 139
Captured 32
Transferred 30


* The compiler of this sketch finds this loss statement in the return of casualties of the Army of the Southwest in the battle of Pea Ridge, Ark., attached to the report of Major General Curtis, found on page 205, Series 1, Vol. 8, War of the Rebellion Official Records. In the history of the Ninth Iowa Infantry by Lieut. Col. Alonzo Abernethy, found on page 174 of the Adjutant General's report of the State of Iowa, for the year 1866, the aggregate loss In killed, wounded and captured Is given as 240, making nearly 44 per cent of the number engaged. In either event, the loss was far above the average of the battles of the War of the Rebellion.


SOURCE: Roster & Record of Iowa Soldiers During the War of the Rebellion, Volume 2, p. 3-10

Fourth Regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry

The Fourth Iowa Infantry was organized under the proclamation of the President, dated May 3, 1861. The companies composing the regiment were mustered into the service of the United States at Camp Kirkwood, near Council Bluffs, Iowa, and at Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis, Mo., on different dates, ranging from August 8, 1861, to August 31, 1861. The discrepancy in the dates and places of muster in of the companies is accounted for by the official records in the office of the Adjutant General of Iowa, which show that Colonel Dodge was ordered to employ the companies which first reached the designated rendezvous at Council Bluffs, in an expedition to the southern border of Iowa, to repel a threatened rebel invasion of the State. In his official report, the Colonel states that the rebel force, that was being organized, disbanded and scattered upon the approach of the Iowa troops, and the object of the expedition was accomplished without a conflict. In the meantime the other companies, as they arrived at rendezvous, were ordered to proceed to St. Louis, in pursuance of orders from General Fremont, the exigencies of the service requiring the rapid concentration of troops at that place. By the 15th of August, all the companies, except I and K, had reached Benton Barracks. Colonel Dodge further reports that the eight companies which had reached the barracks left there on the 24th of August, for Rolla, Mo., where they joined the troops being concentrated there, and became a part of the Army of the Southwest under General Curtis. The remaining companies — I and K — were not mustered into the service until August 31st and did not leave Benton Barracks until September 13th, when they were sent forward to Rolla, where the full ten companies composing the Fourth Iowa Infantry were for the first time in camp together.

It will thus be seen that — as a full regiment — it had lacked even the brief opportunity for drill and instruction which the three regiments which were first organized in Iowa had been given while in their camps at Keokuk, and that it had to acquire such instruction after taking the field, and in the presence of the enemy. Detachments, consisting of one or more companies of the regiment, were sent out upon reconnoitering expeditions, from time to time, while encamped at Rolla, but no important movement against the enemy was undertaken until January 22, 1862, when the regiment started upon a winter campaign which was to put to the severest test its fortitude, courage and endurance of hardships.

General Curtis was in command of the Union troops, and by vigorous marching endeavored to overtake the rebel army under General Price. It was confidently expected that a battle would occur at Springfield, Mo., but the enemy continued to retreat towards the Ozark mountains, with the Union army following closely in his rear. At Sugar Creek, the advance of General Curtis came up with the rear guard of the enemy, and a brisk engagement ensued, in which the Fourth Iowa — with the brigade to which it belonged — supported the cavalry and artillery which led the advance, and drove the enemy from the field. After repeated maneuvers to gain advantage of position, the two armies at last confronted each other, and it became evident that a great battle was impending. The rebel army, having reached its chosen ground — a strong position at Cross Hollows, near the town of Fayetteville, Ark. — and being reinforced by fresh troops, and bands of savages from the Indian Territory, halted, and awaited the attack of the Union Army. But, instead of making a direct attack, General Curtis, by a skillful movement, succeeded in completely flanking the enemy's position, and making it untenable, and the rebel army was again compelled to retreat.

Subsequently General Curtis' troops were stationed, by divisions, at considerable distances apart, in order to obtain supplies from the surrounding country, and the enemy, taking advantage of this situation, was preparing to attack these separated forces and prevent them from being concentrated. They succeeded in passing the extreme right flank of the Union army during the night of March 6th, but General Curtis was apprised of the movement in time to change front and partially concentrate his forces, and, on the morning of March 7, 1862, the two armies again confronted each other, on the high ground of Pea Ridge, and, after some preliminary maneuvering on both sides, the battle began, and continued during that day and part of the next, ending in a complete victory for the Union army. The following extract from the official report of the part taken by the Fourth Iowa Infantry in the battle of Pea Ridge shows how well the regiment acquitted itself, and how nobly it maintained the honor of the State of Iowa on that field:

On the morning of the 7th of March, it was known that the enemy was advancing and attacking our army in the rear, when the regiment, in pursuance of orders from Colonel Dodge, marched about two miles from camp, and took position near the Elkhorn Tavern, on the right of the brigade, and to the right of the Springfield road going north, near the southern outlet of the Ozark Pass. Two companies were deployed as skirmishers to the front, and soon became desperately engaged with the enemy, who poured shot, shell and minie balls into their ranks incessantly, for two hours, but owing to the dense timber, our loss at this point was not very great. The left wing of the division, and also the left of Colonel Dodge's brigade, was now desperately engaged. Colonel Dodge ordered his lines to be closed, and awaited the attack, in the meantime keeping his skirmishers, and one section of the First Iowa Battery at work until about 2 o'clock, when the enemy ceased firing and drew back. Colonel Dodge changed front to the right, which left the regiment on the extreme right of the brigade, as well as of the whole army. The line being formed and our skirmishers drawn in and in their places in line of battle, the regiment in common with others awaited the concentrated attack of the enemy, whom we saw preparing for it. We did not wait long. The attack was made with apparently ten times our number, accompanied with the most terrific cannonading with grape, canister, solid shot and shell. For full three hours the regiment stood under this terrible fire, which dealt death to its ranks. The regiment being flanked on the right by a greatly superior force of the enemy, and their artillery being in a position to completely enfilade its lines, and the left wing of the division having fallen back to the open fields, leaving the left exposed, which was also flanked, it was compelled to fall back obliquely to the right, which it did in good order, fighting its way out, hard pressed by the overwhelming numbers of the enemy, to the open fields, where it was met by General Curtis who ordered it to fix bayonets, and charge back upon the enemy, which it did gallantly, eliciting from the General in his official report this highest meed of praise. "This regiment won immortal honors." It being now dark, and the enemy having ceased firing, the regiment, after having lost in killed and wounded almost one-half of those actually engaged, marched back to camp, partook of a scanty repast, and. immediately commenced preparations for the deadly conflict impending for the succeeding day, filling their cartridge boxes, and cleaning their guns, which had become very foul. This being done, the regiment was marched back, and bivouacked on the field until daylight, soon after which the fight was resumed by artillery. The regiment took its place again to the extreme right, marching forward in line of battle, pursuing the enemy, who commenced retreating early. It pursued the enemy until it had orders to halt. Soon after this orders were given to march back to the battle ground of the previous day and go into camp. The mention of individual acts of bravery could not be made without being invidious.


The report from which the above extract is made was written by Col. J. A. Williamson who succeeded Lieutenant Colonel Galligan, who commanded the regiment, and was wounded in the battle. Colonel Dodge, in his official report as commander of the First Brigade, says:

The list of killed and wounded in the brigade shows that it fought against fearful odds, and disputed the field with great stubbornness. Every field officer in the brigade was disabled, and had to leave the field, and only two Lieutenants were left in the battery.*

Lieutenant Colonel Galligan rendered efficient service in holding the Fourth Iowa firm, no part of which gave an inch, until the whole was compelled to fall back. I wish to mention especially the bravery and valor of Capt. H. H. Griffith (acting Major) and of Lieut. J. A. Williamson, Brigade Adjutant; also of private, J. W. Bell, Adjutant's clerk, Fourth Iowa, who fell mortally wounded while nobly doing his duty. The conduct of the above named officers came under my personal observation. All did well and fought nobly, in winning a great battle. Capt. W. H. Kinsman with Company B, Fourth Iowa, and two companies of the Twenty-Fourth Missouri, were detached from the brigade and deployed as skirmishers on the extreme left of the division, holding the high ridge on our left flank, which he did efficiently, and with great good judgment, against a greatly superior force of the enemy.


After the battle of Pea Ridge, the regiment remained in camp for several weeks. Col. G. M. Dodge was promoted to Brigadier General shortly after the battle, and Adjutant J. A. Williamson succeeded him as Colonel of the regiment, and Captain Burton succeeded Lieutenant Colonel Galligan, who had resigned. The regiment marched with the army to Helena, and participated in all the hardship and suffering of the succeeding campaign. It remained at Helena during the greater part of the summer and autumn of 1862. It subsequently joined General Sherman's army in the movement down the Mississippi River, against Vicksburg, in which it bore a most conspicuous part. On December 28 and 29, 1862, it participated in the desperate fighting at Chickasaw Bayou, suffering severe loss, and duplicating its record of gallantry at Pea Ridge. On the 10th and 11th of January, 1863, it again engaged in battle at Arkansas Post, after which it returned to Young's Point, landing there January 22, 1863, remaining there and below there at Gregg's Plantation until April 2, 1863, when it went 150 miles up the Mississippi River to Greenville, and from there engaged in the Deer Creek Valley Expedition. Returning to Milliken's Bend, it started on the active campaign against Vicksburg by way of Richmond, La., and Grand Gulf, Miss., to Jackson, Miss., and thence moved to Vicksburg, and became part of the investing force on May 18, 1863.

It engaged actively in the siege operations until the surrender July 4th, when it marched to Jackson and participated in the siege operations there, until the evacuation by the enemy July 16, 1863. After the fall of Jackson, the regiment went into camp on Black River, fourteen miles in rear of Vicksburg, where it remained from July 29, 1863, until September 22, 1863, when it embarked on steamer and proceeded to Memphis, Tenn., from which place it began the march ending at Chattanooga, Tenn., where it arrived November 23, 1863. The regiment participated in the battle of Lookout Mountain, November 24, 1863, in the battle of Missionary Ridge, November 25th, and in the battle of Ringgold on the 27th. On the 3d day of December, 1863, it went into camp at Bridgeport, Ala., and later moved from there to Woodville, where it remained in camp until the 26th of February, 1864, when it was ordered to proceed to Des Moines, Iowa, and report through the Governor of the State to the superintendent of recruiting service, for furlough and reorganization, and at the expiration of the thirty days' furlough — to begin after the regiment reached Des Moines — the regimental commander was ordered to report to Brigadier General Osterhaus, commanding First Division, Fifteenth Army Corps, in the field. In compliance with this order, the veteran soldiers of the Fourth Iowa returned to their State, and enjoyed to the fullest extent the brief respite from the toils and dangers of war, at their own homes, and with their families, and the loyal friends of the cause for which they had suffered and endured so much, and for which they would continue to suffer and endure, until the enemies of the Union should be completely conquered, and a lasting peace secured. At the expiration of its furlough, the regiment returned to the field, and rejoined its brigade and division at Nashville, Tenn., from which place It moved forward and participated actively in the great campaign which led up to the siege and culminated in the fall of Atlanta.

From Atlanta began the remarkable campaigns in Georgia and the Carolinas, and the march with Sherman to the sea, in which the Fourth Iowa Infantry had its full share. The regiment participated in the battles of Columbia, S. C, and Bentonville, N. C, and continued on the march to Richmond and thence to Washington, where it marched, with many other Iowa regiments, in the grand review of the battle scarred and war worn soldiers of the armies of the West.

After remaining for some time in camp near Washington, the regiment proceeded to Louisville, Ky., where it was mustered out of the service July 24, 1865, having served nearly four years. The compiler of this brief historical sketch of the service of this splendid Iowa regiment has made diligent search among the official records, and has found a mass of reports, and correspondence connected directly with the history of its service, which — but for the limitations under which he is working — would enable him to increase this sketch to the proportions of a good sized volume. In response to the request of the Adjutant General of Iowa, near the close of the war, Col. J. A. Williamson wrote a condensed report of the operations of the regiment, which extended over a very wide field, in many southern states, but could not give a list of "posts" occupied. He says, "I can hardly realize the meaning of the term as connected with this regiment. We have stopped from time to time to rest, after an active campaign, but never had charge of any post, or fixed camp, from the time the regiment was really equipped for the field at Rolla, Mo., in the fall of 1861." Only those who have had the same experience can realize the feeling, which old soldiers had in common, that it was useless to make definite calculation upon remaining even a single day in one locality. While troops did remain in the same camp, sometimes for weeks, or months, they never knew how quickly a change would be made, and therefore, in time of war, the soldier's life is very much the same as that of the Nomads, ready to break camp and to move upon the shortest notice. Such was, in a most pronounced degree, the experience of the Fourth Iowa Infantry during its long period of service from 1861 to 1865.

The subjoined roster, summary of casualties, list of those buried in National Cemeteries, and of those who were captured by the enemy and confined in rebel prisons, have been carefully compiled from the official records.

The paragraph after each name in the roster gives briefly the history of the service he rendered, and the descendants of the soldiers of this gallant regiment may here learn how well and faithfully they served their country in her hour of greatest need, and know that a great and grateful commonwealth has herein discharged a high duty to the memory of her brave sons.

Inseparably connected with the history of this regiment is that of the man who first commanded it, and under whom it won its first glorious victory. Subsequently he won high honor as a General and enjoyed the personal friendship and confidence of President Lincoln and General Grant. Since the close of the war, he has achieved fame and distinction in civil life. Through all his career he has cherished the memory of the men of his old regiment, and has — from time to time — given evidence of his abiding friendship for them. This is therefore an appropriate place to record the official military history of Iowa's most distinguished soldier. The record is compiled from the files of the War Department in Washington and of the Adjutant General's office of the State of Iowa, and is therefore officially correct.


MILITARY RECORD OF MAJOR GENERAL GRENVILLE M. DODGE.

Captain Council Bluffs Guards July 15, 1856.

Appointed Colonel Fourth Iowa Infantry June 17, 1861, and ordered into camp at Council Bluffs.

Commissioned Colonel Fourth Iowa Infantry July 6, 1861.

During July marched with part of his regiment to Missouri State line against Poindexter, who, with 1,200 Confederates, was threatening Southwestern Iowa. Poindexter retreated when Dodge approached.

Reported at St. Louis with Fourth Iowa Infantry August 13, 1861.

Proceeded to Rolla, Mo., August 24, 1861.

Assigned to command of post at Rolla, October 9, 1861.

Commanded expeditions to Houston and Salem, November 1, 1861. Enemy defeated in both engagements.

Wounded in left leg, December 15, 1861.

Assigned to command of First Brigade, Fourth Division, Army of Southwest, January 21, 1862. Advanced to Springfield. That place occupied February 13, 1862.

In engagements at Sugar Creek, February 17, 1862, and Cane Creek, February 20, 1862.

Defeated Gates' command at Blackburn's Mills, February 27, 1862.

Battle of Pea Ridge, March 6, 7 and 8, 1862. Wounded in right side.

Commissioned Brigadier General of Volunteers, March 31, 1862.

Reported to Major General Halleck at Corinth, June 6, 1862, and ordered by him to report to Brig. Gen. W. F. Quimby, commanding District of Columbus, to rebuild Mobile & Ohio Railroad.

June 28, 1862, assigned to command of Central Division, Army of Tennessee, with headquarters at Trenton, Tenn.

Finished rebuilding Mobile & Ohio Railroad in August and built stockades and earthworks at all its important bridges and stations.

During the time in command at Trenton the captures of Dyersburg, Huntington and O'Brien were made, and Villipigue was defeated on the Hatchie River.

September 29, 1862, by order of Maj. Gen. U. S. Grant, was assigned to the command of the District of Columbus, Ky.

Captured Colonel Faulkner and his command at Island No. 10. Also captured the State troops and conscripts, some 1,400 in number, twenty-three miles west of New Madrid.

October 30, 1862, assigned by order of Maj. Gen. U. S. Grant to command Second Division Army of Tennessee, at Corinth, Miss.

November 15, 1862, assigned to command of the District of Corinth, by order of Maj. Gen. U. S. Grant.

Extensive fortifications and important works in and around Corinth finished while holding that command.

December 1, 1862, a combined movement was made from Holly Springs and Corinth in which his troops captured Tupelo and Okolona, Miss., defeating the enemy and capturing the stores at those places.

December, 1862, by order of Maj. Gen. U. S. Grant, moved to Lexington and Spring Creek, Tenn., driving Forrest across the Tennessee River.

February, 1863, attacked Van Dorn's column at Tuscumbia, Ala. Place was captured with its stores, artillery, etc.

April, 1863, in command of Second Division, part of Fifth Division and portion of Cavalry Division of the Sixteenth Army Corps. Made expedition in Northern Alabama, defeating the forces of the enemy in the Tuscumbia Valley. During the movement the fights at Bear Creek, Cherokee, Burton Station, Leighton and Town Creek occurred. Immense quantities of stores for Bragg's army were captured and destroyed.

April, 1863, Chalmers and Ruggles were attacked and defeated at Tupelo.

June, 1863, crossed the Tennessee River at Savannah. Moved into Van Dorn's rear. Captured the town of Florence, defeating its garrison.

June 19, 1863, attacked Furgeson's command on Big Muddy, and stopped raid on Memphis & Charleston Railroad. Fighting was severe and loss considerable.

July 8, 1863, assigned to command of left wing Sixteenth Army Corps with headquarters at Corinth.

July 14, 1863, defeated a portion of Roddy's command at Jackson, Tenn., and captured a large number of prisoners.

August 15, 1863, made raid on Granada, Miss., capturing a large number of locomotives, cars, railroad stocks, stores, etc., and defeated the enemy at Water Valley and Granada.

While in command at Corinth organized and mustered into the service First West Tennessee Cavalry, First Alabama Cavalry, First Alabama Colored Infantry, and several companies of colored troops for siege artillery.

October 30, 1863, command was attached to command of Major General Sherman then moving into Middle Tennessee.

During months of November and December, 1863, rebuilt Nashville & Decatur Railroad, also pontoon bridges across Tennessee River at Decatur, Ala., and the Duck and Elk rivers, and constructed good and substantial earthworks and stockades at all the important bridges and points. During this time the command had several engagements with the enemy, and captured and fortified Decatur, Ala.

January, 1864, organized and mustered into service Second and Third Regiments Alabama Colored Infantry.

May 5, 1864, in command Sixteenth Army Corps in the field at Atlanta campaign. Took part in the battles and engagements at Ships Gap May 6th, Snake Creek Gap May 9th, Resaca May 11th, Estounula River May 12th, Kenesaw Mountain, Roswell, Decatur July 21st, Atlanta July 22d, Ezra Church July 28th.

Commissioned Major General June 7, 1864.

Wounded in head August 19, 1864.

October 14, 1864, ordered to City Point, Va., to visit General Grant.

November 3, 1864, assigned to command of District of Vicksburg and to command of left wing Sixteenth Army Corps.

December 2,1864, assigned to the command of Department and Army of Missouri.

December 9, 1864, commissioned Major General Missouri State Militia.

January 30, 1865, Department of Kansas added to Department of Missouri.

Gen. Jeff C. Thompson surrendered Confederate forces in Arkansas.

During January, February and March, 1865, made Indian campaigns on the plains, opening up the stage lines and rebuilding telegraph lines which had been destroyed by the Indians.

1865-66, made Indian campaigns extending from Arkansas River on south to Yellowstone on north. In these campaigns several severe battles were fought by forces under Generals Sanborn, Ford, Conner, and Colonels Cole, Walker and others. Treaties of peace were made with the Comanches, Apaches, Southern Cheyennes, and other Southern Tribes, and a council was held with the Northern Cheyennes, Arapahoes and Sioux at Fort Laramie, and basis for treaty agreed upon. For services in this campaign received the thanks of the Legislature of Iowa.

Resigned March 1, 1866.

Accepted May 30, 1866.


SUMMARY OF CASUALTIES.

Total Enrollment 1557
Killed 61
Wounded 338
Died of wounds 54
Died of disease 239
Discharged for wounds, disease and other causes 333
Captured 49
Buried in National Cemeteries 136
Transferred 37


*Colonel Dodge was himself wounded in the right side.


SOURCE: Roster & Record of Iowa Soldiers During the War of the Rebellion, Vol. 1, p. 527-33