FORT DONELSON, Feb. 18,
1862.
Dear Father: Long before you get this, the telegraph
will inform you of the particulars of the capture of this very important post,
and also the part the Second Iowa took in it. I do not know how the reports
will reach you at home, but here we are covered with glory. I have been very
busy since the battle, attending to the burying of the dead, and taking care of
the wounded. I could find no time to write sooner.
I thought of nothing, while climbing the hill on “double
quick” to storm the fort, but to keep my men in order and prevent confusion.
When I saw my gallant boys scaling the earthworks and putting the Rebels to the
bayonet, and shooting them down with still greater fatality than they had us
just before, I felt like clasping each one of our brave boys in my arms. Our loss
was very great, but theirs much greater. After the battle was over it was, and
still is, terrible to think of. Joel and I were side by side most of the time.
He fought bravely, even a little rashly sometimes. He was not touched. I was
grazed by a ball which passed through my coat-sleeve and glove, hitting the
hilt of my sword and knocking it over my head. The sudden wrenching of it out
of my hand, paralyzed my arm during the rest of the engagement. I was afterward
standing on a log, beckoning to another regiment behind us to come on, when a
cannon ball struck the log, forcing it from under me. I fell backward on a
limb, injuring my back very much; I cannot straighten it yet. Tell the Des
Moines folks that their company did nobly. Capt. Mills and I were close
together most of the time. He fought bravely. Lieuts. Ensign and Godfrey also
did bravely. Sergt. Doty was among the bravest of the brave, and died like a
hero. George Morse, of Farmington, also died bravely. He was one of the best
sergeants of the regiment. We lost some noble young men, one out of every
three, either killed or wounded. I was over the battle field to-day, and don't
see how any of us escaped alive. * * * *
*
J. M. TUTTLE.
SOURCES: Samuel H. M. Byers, Iowa In War Times, p. 107
