From The Second Iowa

The following letter was addressed to C. C. Cole, Esq., by Lieut. Godfrey:

Pittsburg Landing, Tenn.,
April 9, 1862.

C. C. Cole, Esq., –

Dear Sir:

Another important era in the history of this rebellion has just passed. The ball was opened last Sabbath morning by Beauregard at the head of one hundred and twenty thousand of his followers. The attack was commenced on our right soon after daylight, and about three miles from our (the 2d Iowa) camp. About eight o’clock our Brigade, Col. Tuttle commanding, was called out and marched about two miles, where we came in range of the enemy’s guns. We took a position under cover of the brow of a hill in the edge of the timber. Our position was soon discovered by the rebels, who were just across a field from us, and the shells and canister soon came rattling through our ranks, which compelled us to take a horizontal position on the ground, where we lay about two hours, not more than two feet out of range of their guns. The right wing of our regiment was then ordered to take a position about one hundred rods to the right, to the support of a part of Col. Sweeney’s regiment. Our new position exposed us both to the fire of their artillery and musketry, but our men stood up to it like veterans. I cannot here refrain from mentioning the coolness of Capt. Mills. We were compelled to lie close to the ground and whilst in this position a grape shot came whizzing passed and just clipped the Captain on the chin, who very coolly remarked that “that was rather close.” Soon after this we discovered that the enemy were marching to our right, apparently for the purpose of flanking us, (the companies we were sent to support had all left,) and as the Captain was surveying them with a glass a ball passed through his coat sleeve, but he paid little attention to it – thought it a good joak [sic] on the coat! Word was sent by order of Capt. Mills to Col. Baker commanding our regiment, they were flanking us. Our men opened fire on them but did not succeed in staying their movements, for we had no support. – We held the position a few moments longer, when we returned to our old position in the regiment. All this time our forces on the left of Tuttle’s Brigade were gradually falling back; the Brigade on our right were entirely gone, and the enemy advanced a considerable distance, which left us in advance of any of our forces near us. Orders soon came for us to fall back slowly, which was accomplished in good order, until we found that they had us completely trapped, they being in our rear and on either side of us. – Our Brigade was composted of the 2d, 7th, 12th and 14th Iowa regiments, ours in the advance, which with the 7th, succeeded in forcing our way through the rebels crossfire; but the 12th and 14th were mostly taken prisoners. When we got in we found our men had been forced in at every point, and that the enemy were rapidly closing in upon us. The Colonel succeeded in rallying a portion of his brigade, which together with other Brigades, formed another line, and prepared to make a stand at all hazards. About this time the advance guard of Buell came to our assistance, and the shouts which rang through our lines echoed through the rebel forces as they made their last desperate charge. It was now life or death for either side, and every one seemed to think that the final success or failure of rebellion depended upon the result of this charge. The contest lasted but a short time, when the rebel lines began to waver, and soon they were compelled to fall back. It was now about dark, and the firing for the first time during the day, ceased. There was no time after we were called into line in the morning until after dark, that you could not hear the roar of musketry and artillery on some portion of the field, and some of the time it even surpassed the most terrific thunder I ever heard. We held our position in line during the night, and early Monday morning with a reinforcement of thirty-five thousand fresh troops, we commenced the attack, and drove them inch by inch until three o’clock, when they were completely routed. We had quite an interesting time that day. Our company was deployed as skirmishers once, which seemed more like sport than fighting, for the boys. – The regiment made one charge on a band of Secesh, but they all fled before we could pick them up. We returned to camp that night pretty well drilled. The next morning we started out again, Col. Tuttle acting Major General, and commanding a Division; Col. Baker acting Brigadier General, and Capt. Houston commanding our regiment; was out all day, but saw nothing of the rebels. It was reported as we came in last night, that Mitchell’s Division had got in the rear of them and cut off their retreat, and was in possession of Corinth, and that we had captured seven thousand prisoners, and got back the 14th, 12th and 8th Iowa regiments. We have not been out to-day, and do not know whether the report is true or not; but one thing we do know, that they are pretty effectually whipped, and are not within fifteen miles of us, and that Gens. Johnson [sic] and Bragg are dead. Their men say they had one hundred and thirty-five thousand men. I don’t know how many men we had, but suppose the first day about fifty thousand. – Buell came just at the right time. He is one of the best Generals in the service and deserves the honors of this engagement.

Company D had ten wounded, none mortally. Capt. Mills, Looby, Riddle, Barnett, Fergerson, Bazle, L. B. and Wm. Houston, Price, Burbridge, and Sharp. We have three missing, A B. Bush, J. Crystal and Leighton. Our men did good fighting. Col. Tuttle is all right, and one of the bravest Generals in the field. Col Baker, acting Brigadier General is among the best and bravest Colonels we have. Adj. Joel Tuttle had his horse shot from under him but he escaped unhurt, Sergt. Major Marsh is alright. Our Regiment lost seven killed, seventy-four wounded and five missing. I have no idea of the total killed on both sides, but the woods for five miles around are full of dead bodies. Many of the wounded are still on the field. The river bank is covered with wounded, both Union and secesh, and boat load after boat load have gone down the river. You can imagine something of the result, where two hundred thousand men were fighting continually for two days. Col. Crocker was just here, he is all right, is acting Brig. Gen. now. John Watson is mortally wounded. Capt. Smith and both his Lieutenants are uninjured. I don’t thing any of the Des Moines boys were killed. We are all feeling first rate and begin to think secession nearly played out.

Your obedient servant,
G. G. Godfrey

– Published in the Daily State Register, Des Moines, Iowa, Tuesday, April 22, 1862

From The Second Iowa

The subjoined letter is from JOHN LYNDE, a young man who went from this place, and was formerly a clerk in this office. The letter is directed to Mr. Moody:

Pittsburgh, Tennessee,
March [sic] 8th, 1862.

Friend Moody: –

Agreeable to my promise, I write you the first opportunity after anything of importance had taken place, and I am sure a battle of the greatest importance to our cause has taken place here within the last two days. I shall be very brief as I have not time to write much, and it is doubtful whether this will be permitted to reach you.

That you may better understand the description I will speak of the country around here, and the position of our forces.

We are encamped on the West bank of the Tennessee river, at, and near Pittsburgh. The town (six houses originally,) is between two sloughs which are filled with water from the river at the present time, running back to the west one-third of a mile or more. Our encampment occupies this space, and when beyond the sloughs, extends both North and South for nearly a mile, while it runs back four miles from the river. The ground is covered with heavy timber, with the exception of here and there a small clearing, and is rolling, like our prairies in Iowa.

On Sunday morning, the 6th, the enemy drove in our scouts and attacked us in full force, driving us nearly a mile before they could be checked. At about half past seven, we succeeded in getting force sufficient to check them for a while, and they, bringing up reinforcements, extended the line of battle full three miles in length. By this time the battle had become general throughout the whole line; but they brought such great odds against us, in spite of the numbers which were killed by our batteries and infantry, they would crowd up to and force our lines back, in some instances taking our batteries from us, and though our men fought desperately they were obliged to fall back and take new positions. – The battle continued thus until about half past five o’clock in the evening, our forces making a stand and forming a line on a slight elevation of ground extending North and South, and parallel with the river; maintaining their position as long as possible, then falling back to another ridge and forming again. This was repeated again and again until the last stand was made on a ridge running from the sough on the South in a north-westerly direction back from the river. If they had carried this line the day would have been theirs, and our whole transportation; for it was between our line, the river, and the slough on the north, with no opportunity of escape if our line was once broken. You may rest assured that I felt some anxiety at that time, if not before, for I was with the train of our regiment and must necessarily be taken or swim. At that time our new line was forming. Buell’s forces from Nashville began to arrive on the opposite side of the river, and before the enemy began the attack about 5,000 had crossed to our assistance. In this attack they failed and were driven back with great loss, and routed for the night. At daylight the next morning, we being reinforced, commenced the attack, and by 2 o’clock P.M., had re-taken all the ground lost, and the enemy soon running. During the evening I rode over the field, and everything indicates terrible fighting, and indeed there was; from until after 2 o’clock there was one continual discharge of musketry, and only twice during that time did I hear the distinct and separate discharge of a single musket; the rest of the time it was one continual roar, much of the time increased by the discharge of cannon, and these decreasing as they ceased.

You can travel miles through the timber and can not find a tree of any size but that is marked by the balls. In many places the small trees are entirely cut down by the fire of the small arms, while larger trees are torn and broken in all directions by shell and shot from the cannon.

Our Regiment was ordered into position about 9 o’clock in the morning and with the 14th, 12th and 7th Iowa Regiments, forming a brigade under Col. Tuttle, were placed a little to the left of the centre of the line of battle and maintained their position until Gen. Wallace ordered them to fall back; which order came so late that the brigade was outflanked nearly a mile. Our boys did not fall back until ordered, and then only the 2nd and the 7th got out, passing through a cross fire for nearly the whole distance. – The 12th and 14th both fought bravely but were overpowered, and surrendered.

Our boys in the 2d, suffered severely then, but were in the fight again the next day and made the last charge on the right; which may be said to have commenced the race. We have lost nearly 100 in killed, wounded and missing. In Co. D, we have no one killed that we know of. Two are missing. These are Austin Rush and James Crystal, son of R. S. Crystal of Lee township. These will come in, I presume, in a day or two. Wm. Riddle, John Looby, Leonard Houston, Sergeant Wm. Houston, and some others are wounded, more or less, but not very severely. The whole Regiment behaved with the utmost coolness during the time they were in the fire.

The prisoners taken say that they had sixty thousand men at the commencement of the action and were re-inforced by sixty thousand more during the day. I do not think that we had over forty thousand in all the first day, and many of them were new troops and did not stand fire. So that our force cold not have been half of the enemy on Sunday. On Monday Buell took the field with fourteen thousand of his men and then we drove them without check.

I have not time to write any more at present, will write again soon. I have written this in a great hurry, and you must excuse errors. The boys send their best wishes, and I include mine.

JOHN LYNDE.

P.S. By-the-way I wish you would send me a half dozen postage stamps, as it is almost impossible to get any. This is my last.

JOHN

– Published in the Daily State Register, Des Moines, Iowa, Tuesday, April 22, 1862

Interesting

Our paper this morning will be found to be rich in battle correspondence. – The interesting letters from WM. HOUSTON and MAT. LAIRD will command special attention. The paper contains direct news by letter from the Second, Thirteenth, Fifteenth and Sixteenth Iowa Regiments. It is gratifying to know that so far as intelligence has been received, not a soldier from Polk county was killed. Three of the boys in Company D, whose names are given in another place, were reported missing. This is ominous, but we trust they have not been killed. As intimated by Mr. HOUSTON, they were probably separated from their Regiment in the confusion of the fight on Sunday and have re-appeared since. This is the most natural inference. We regret much to hear that WM. RIDDLE, Sergeant J. H. LOOBY and JOHN WATSON were badly wounded. These we learn were the only cases of dangerous injury among Des Moines boys.

– Published in the Daily State Register, Des Moines, Iowa, Saturday, April 19, 1862

From The Iowa 2d Infantry

We are gratified to place before our readers at the earliest moment, the following interesting letter from WM. HOUSTON of Co. D, Second Iowa, directed to his relatives in this place:

Pittsburg Landing, April 9th, 1862.

Dear Father and Mother:

You will doubtless before this reaches you have heard by telegraph of one of the greatest battles ever fought on the American Continent. You knew that our Regiment was here, and would necessarily be in the fight. You must be impatient to learn the result. – Early on Sunday morning the 6th instant, General Beauregard with an immense force under his command, had the impudence to attack us at this place. We had at that time an available force at this place of perhaps 75,000 men, with perhaps 20,000 below near Savannah, all under the command of General Grant.

The enemy came on our outer camp, and surprised some of our Regiments while at breakfast. In fact, it surprised us all to think they would have the impudence to attack us first. The alarm was soon spread over the entire camp. The Regiments were soon formed in line of battle, and moved to the scene of action. The enemy drove some of our outer Regiments at first back into camp, but were soon promptly checked by others, until the fight became general. Such a rattling of musketry and roaring of cannon, I never before heard. It was one continual shower of lead, shells and balls all day! It was first upon our right that the enemy appeared determined to force their way in, but they were met with equal determination on the part of our boys. Failing in this onset the rebels would then turn their fire and hail, first upon the center, then upon the left, only to be repulsed again! After fighting against such odds all day, our men became wearied late in the afternoon, and then the right and afterward the left wing of our army commenced giving way. Both wings were driven in. Our Brigade under command of Gen. TUTTLE in the centre held their position until after both wings were driven in, and we were about to be surrounded. We were then ordered to fall back slowly, but in doing so we were compelled to run the gauntlet for about a mile with the enemy firing on us from both sides. Most of us succeeded in getting in, however. Some were killed and a few wounded, and a few of our Brigade, were taken prisoners, but I presume it is a very few.

Myself and brother were among the wounded this time. He received a ball in the foot which lamed him slightly. I received a wound in the head, but it was not serious. I continued in the fight the next day.

Our troops after falling back, rallied near the river, and held the rebels in check until night came on, when the fight ceased, with the exception of the cannonading which was kept up all night boy our batteries and gun boats, throwing shell in the camp of the rebels. The rebel batteries responded very feebly.

In the meantime while we were holding the rebels in check, Gen. BUELL’S forces arrived on the opposite bank of the river, which was not a moment too soon, I assure you. They crossed over in the night, and early next morning we had a large reinforcement with which to renew the fight. The scale now turned in our favor. Gen. LEW WALLACE commenced the attack on the right and rear, having come up the river at night, and got in the rear. Our forces and Gen. Buell’s reinforcements were in the center and left. We soon began to drive the rebels, but we had to fight for it, for they contested every foot of ground, inch by inch, until late in the afternoon, when we had taken most of their artillery, killed Gen. BRAGG, Gen. SIDNEY JOHNSTON, and it is reported General JOHN C. BRECKENRIDGE. The rebels then gave up all as lost, and commenced a general retreat, with our men and cavalry in pursuit, killing and taking prisoners by scores.

It is reported that while we were fighting the rebels at this place on Monday, General MITCHELL’s division of Gen. Buell’s command crossed the river above, cut off the retreat of a portion of the rebels, and are now taking a great many prisoners, with their baggage, guns, &c. It is said the rebels are so panic stricken that they are throwing away their arms and scattering in all directions. – If such is the case, the war will soon be ended, for their army is so completely disorganized that they never can collect a Corporal’s Guard again.

Many of the prisoners tell us that Beauregard told them before the fight that they must whip us this time, or their cause was gone up, and they might as well give all up as lost. We have learned by letters taken from the rebels, that it was the object of Gen. BEAUREGARD to attack and whip us before the arrival of General Buell’s Division which they seem to have known was coming from Nashville.

It is impossible for me to form any correct estimate of the killed and wounded, but the loss was very heavy on both sides. But the rebels suffered greatly more than we did. – The loss in the Second Iowa regiment was 74 wounded, five killed and 7 missing. The loss of Co. D is 11 wounded as follows: - John H. Looby, severely; William Riddle, severely in thigh; R. D. Barnett in hand; John Furgeson, slightly in arm; Peter Boyle, slightly; Burbridge, slightly; Sharp, slightly in hand; L. B. Houston, slightly in foot; John Price slightly. I have also received a slight wound in the head, but being naturally a little thick-headed, the ball did not succeed in getting in very deeply. A. B. Rush, James Crystal and George Leighton are among the missing of Co D. I do not think any of them are killed. It is probable they were separated from the regiment in the confusion, and have not been able to find their way back.

The Fifteenth and Sixteenth Regiments arrived here just in time to take part in the battle. Iowa has no cause to be ashamed of them; neither has she of any of her troops.

Col. CROCKER is all right. He had a horse shot under him. JOHN WATSON is dangerously wounded. David Winters, Will Goodrell, and Capt. W. T. Smith and all the Des Moines boys in the Fifteenth Regiment are all right and well.

The commissioned officers of Co. D were at their posts, and Gen. Halleck said of the Second at Donelson, they were the bravest of the brave! Our field officers, Gen. Tuttle, Col. Baker, and Adjutant Joel Tuttle, were fortunate in coming out without a scratch. The Adjutant had a horse shot under him.

– Published in the Daily State Register, Des Moines, Iowa, Saturday, April 19, 1862

From The 13th

We learn that a letter was received by Mrs. Crocker yesterday, stating that the Colonel escaped without a scratch. The letter from Wm. Houston, which we publish in another place, shows that the Colonel had a horse or two shot under him. We are sincerely glad that Colonel Crocker escaped without injury. Of his fighting pluck, and of his ability to command a regiment, no man, acquainted as well as we are with him, would ever admit a doubt. We are proud of this gallant officer, and the City from which he went to the war is also proud of him.

– Published in the Daily State Register, Des Moines, Iowa, Saturday, April 19, 1862