Oliver C. Lewis

1st Lieutenant
Company B, 2nd Iowa Infantry

Returned

Lt. Flanagan, of company B, and Private Elijah Stone of Le Claire, belonging to the same company, arrived on the Eastern train yesterday afternoon.  They left their regiment at Savannah, on the Tennessee river, last Tuesday, with several other regiments, awaiting orders.  Gen. C. F. Smith was in command, but they met Gen. Grant going up the Tennessee to take command. – Both Lieut. F. and private Stone are sick, and have come home to recruit.  The departure of Lieut. Flanagan left Capt. Littler without any subordinate officer above Second Sergeant Oliver C. Lewis; they met Lt. Huntington at La Salle on his way to join the regiment.  They represent the indignation in the company, when they heard of reports current here about Capt. Littler as very great; and the men held an important meeting, at which they expressed their own views on the subject in emphatic terms.  Capt. Littler seems to be as popular with his men as he ever was, and they want to follow him whenever they have another fight.  Mr. Stone tells us that Capt. Littler was with the company in the skirmishes of the day previous to the famous charge at Fort Donelson, and showed that the music of bullets had no particular horror for him.  Lieut. Flanagan will probably be here two or three weeks.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, March 22, 1862, p. 1