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Roster and Record of Iowa Troops In the Rebellion, Vol. 3

By Guy E. Logan

HISTORICAL SKETCH

NINETEENTH REGIMENT IOWA VOLUNTEER INFANTRY

The State of Iowa had sent into the field eighteen full regiments of infantry at the time

President Lincoln issued his proclamation calling for 300,000 more volunteers, early in July,

1862. In prompt response to that call, and as the first contribution from Iowa under it, the

Nineteenth Regiment was organized. The ten companies selected to compose the regiment were

ordered into quarters by Governor Kirkwood between the dates Aug. 1 and Aug. 19, 1862, and

were assembled at the designated rendezvous, Keokuk, Iowa, and there mustered into the service

of the United States by Lieutenant Charles J. Ball, United States Army, on the 17th, 18th, 20th,

21st and 23d days of August, 1862. The aggregate strength of the regiment at muster in was

983.1

1 Adjutant General's Report, State of Iowa, Vol. 1, 1863, Original Roster of the Regiment,

pages 682 to 717.

The name "Lincoln" was chosen for its first camp, in honor of the President. In that camp, in

the short interval that elapsed before the regiment took the field, the officers and men eagerly

applied themselves to the study of their duties as soldiers, and learned something of the

rudiments of the art of war, in which they were afterwards to become proficient, learning their

hard lessons by actual experience in the severe training they received in active campaigns against

the enemy.

The regiment was fully equipped for service in the field before leaving the State. On the

evening of Sept. 3, 1862, Colonel Crabb received orders to embark his regiment and proceed to

St. Louis, Mo., and, upon his arrival there, to report to the commanding officer at Benton

Barracks. When the regiment reached the latter place it was at once assigned to quarters and was

placed in the Brigade commanded by Brigadier General F. J. Herron, of Iowa. On the morning of

September 11th, the regiment left Benton Barracks and proceeded by rail to Rolla, Mo. Upon its

arrival at Rolla the regiment marched five miles from that place on the road leading to

Springfield, and established its first camp in the State of Missouri. An active and aggressive

campaign against the enemy was then about to begin, in which the men of the Nineteenth Iowa

were to have their fortitude, courage and endurance put to the severest test. September 16th, the

regiment took up the line of march toward Springfield, where it arrived after a toilsome march of

125 miles. There it remained until October 11th, engaged in constructing fortifications and

guarding rebel prisoners. It then marched to Cassville, Mo., where the Army of the Frontier was

organized and the Nineteenth Iowa was assigned to the division commanded by Brigadier

General Herron of Iowa. The details of the operations of the regiment, in this and subsequent

campaigns, can not be fully given in this sketch, on account of limitation of space to which the

compiler is subjected, but he hopes to include all the main features of it's service. 2

2 The compiler of this sketch has gleaned much of his material from the carefully prepared

histories of the operations of the regiment, found in the reports of the Adjutant General of Iowa,

for the years 1864, 1865 and 1867, pages 461 to 466, 284 to 286 and 589 to 592, written by John

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Bruce, Major, Lieutenant and Colonel, Nineteenth Iowa Infantry, and Brevet Colonel and

Brigadier General. The student of the military history of Iowa is referred to these histories for a

more extended account of the operations of this regiment.

October 17th, the regiment again marched southward and, from that date until December 7th,

performed a wonderful series of marches and counter-marches, in pursuit of a vigilant and

elusive enemy. Major Bruce thus tersely describes those remarkable marches, which led up to

and culminated in the battle of Prairie Grove:

October 17th, broke camp at Cassville, Mo.; marched southward four miles and camped for

the night. October 18th marched southward 31 miles and camped, Sugar Creek, Benton County,

Arkansas; lay on our arms all night. General Blunt's division was camped nearby. At 5 o'clock p.

m. of the 20th broke up camp; made a night march over the Pea Ridge battle ground, and on to

White River, cross the river; Water three feet deep, clear and cold. On the 22nd marched 15

miles; halted and prepared supper. We were then within a distance of six miles from Huntville,

Ark.; fell in again at 6 p. m., and made a night march of 14 miles to White River at a point below

here we had first crossed, arriving at 2 a. m. on the morning of the 23d of October; bivouacked

until 7 a.m. when, without waiting for breakfast crossed White River, marched forward much of

the time on double quick, reaching the telegraph road at Bloomington at 12 m.; formed at once in

line of battle, expecting an attack; remained in that position three hours and where then ordered

forward on the main road to Cross Hollow, Ark., where we arrived at 5 p. m., and went into

camp having made a forced march of 100 miles in three days and three nights over a very rough

and mountainous country, and having compelled the enemy to retreat across the Boston

Mountains. Left Cross Hollow November 4, 1862, marched 15 miles and camped on Pea Ridge

battle ground; November 5th, marched 20 miles and camped three mile south of Castle.

November 6th marched 32 miles and camped on Cane Creek November 10th left camp on Cane

Creek and reached 17 miles to Wilson's Creek. From there marched 12 miles and camped at

Ozark, Mo. On the 14th Nov., marched 14 miles and camped on Sawyers Creek. November 17th,

again marched towards Ozark; reaching that place at 9 p. m. we marched four miles farther and

bivouacked for the night. November 18th, reached 15 miles and camped on James River. It

rained continually on this march and the roads were in a very bad condition. November 22nd left

camp on James River, marched 5 miles to Twin Springs and went into camp there, This camp

was afterwards called Camp Curtis, and this is 12 miles south of Springfield, Mo. On the 3rd of

December, at 2 a. m., broke up camp and started to reinforce the First Division under General

Blunt, who was holding the enemy in check at Cane Hill, Ark.; marched 18 miles to Cane Creek

and bivouacked for the night. On the 4th of December, marched 28 miles to Cassville and

bivouacked for the night. December 5th marched 24 miles to Pea Ridge, Ark. December 6th,

marched 34 miles to Fayetteville, and rested a few hours. Left Fayetteville at 5 a. m. December

7th, marched 12 miles to Illinois Creek. Here we met the enemy, under General Hindman, and

fought the battle of Prairie Grove. 3

3 Report of Adjutant General of Iowa 1864, pages 463-4.

At the commencement of the battle, Lieutenant Colonel Samuel McFarland was in command

of the regiment, and was killed early in the engagement. The command then devolved upon

Major D. Kent, who continued in command until the close of the battle, and from whose official

report the following extracts are made:

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. . . The Nineteenth Regiment was ordered into line of battle at 12 o'clock p.m., Lieutenant

Colonel Samuel McFarland commanding. By order of Colonel Orme, three companies were

detached and deployed a skirmishers. The companies were A, B and C, and owing to

circumstances, Lieutenant Root, the acting Adjutant of the regiment, was ordered to take

command. The skirmishers advanced under a heavy fire to a cornfield on the right of Company

E, First Missouri Light Artillery, and were ordered to hold it at all hazards, which was done, until

ordered to fall back and form in line of battle. The regiment was then ordered to the left of the

white house on the hill to support the Twentieth Wisconsin, which was hotly engaged. The

Nineteenth, led by Lieutenant Colonel McFarland, advanced steadily up the hill and across the

orchard back of the house, when the Twentieth Wisconsin gave way. The Nineteenth still

advanced to the fence adjoining the woods, when the enemy, who lay concealed, arose to their

feet, three regiments deep, and poured a destructive fire upon us from three sides which caused

the regiment to waver and fall back to the battery on the left of the road leading up to the hill.

Here Lieutenant Colonel McFarland fell, shot through the body. I then took command and rallied

what was left of the regiment, which had met with severe loss in the charge. I then left the men I

had rallied in charge of Captain Roderick, Company K, and went to rally some scattered troops.

While I was absent Colonel Orme rode up and ordered Captain Roderick to fall in and rally with

the Ninety-fourth Illinois, and this force, led by Colonel Orme in

person, drove back the enemy with great slaughter and held their position until ordered to fall

back and reform. In the retreat of the Twentieth Wisconsin the color bearer was shot and let fall

the colors, when the enemy made a desperate effort to get them, but a portion of the Nineteenth

Iowa rallied and, getting possession of them, carried them off the field with their own.

Officers and men behaved nobly and fought desperately as if the fate of the battle depended

on them alone. I will mention especially Captain Roderick of Company K, whom I left in charge

of some scattered troops; also Captain Richmond of Company H, and Captain Taylor of

Company G, also Lieutenant Brooks of Company D, who brought the colors off the field, and in

doing so was badly wounded. Others are equally meritorious, but they are too numerous to

mention at present....

Of the conduct of the three companies while on the skirmish line, Lieutenant Root made a

supplementary report, which Major Kent embodied with his own, and which reads in part as

follows:

. . . I advanced them to the right of Company E, of the First Missouri Battery, when the right

wing, under Captain John Bruce, was attacked by a superior force of the enemy, but a few well

directed shots drove them back. I would here notice the bravery of Captain Bruce and the men

under him. After advancing up near the woods, the enemy came out of cover, showing a heavy

body of infantry and two battalions of cavalry, who met with a warm reception from the right,

under Captain Bruce, which made them scatter. At this time I received an order from Colonel

Orme to fall back to the cornfield, so as to let the battery shell the woods, which was done in

good order and held until I was ordered to rejoin the regiment.

Major Kent reports the loss of the regiment in this battle as follows: Killed, commissioned

officers 3, enlisted men 42; wounded, commissioned officers 6, enlisted men 140; missing 2.

Total loss, 192. The battle of Prairie Grove was one of the most hotly contested of the war. The

official report of General Herron states that he took into the engagement 3,500 men and that his

total loss was 953. He speaks in the highest terms of the bravery of the Nineteenth Iowa and its

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gallant commander, Lieutenant Colonel McFarland, who was killed while leading his regiment in

a desperate charge. 5 The remarkable record of its exhausting marches in pursuit of the enemy,

the fact that this was the first experience of the regiment in battle, and that it fought against

greatly superior numbers, would alone have given it an honored place in history, had its service

terminated with the battle of Prairie Grove.

4 Report of Adjutant General of Iowa 1865, pages 281-2.

5 Report of Adjutant General of Iowa, Vol. 2, 1863, Report, page 832.

The regiment bivouacked for the night on the battlefield and moved forward at daylight

expecting to renew the attack, but it was discovered that the enemy had retreated during the

night, thus admitting defeat. The regiment then went into camp on the battlefield and engaged in

the duty of bury. lug the dead with the honors of war, and giving the wounded such care and

attention as could be rendered in the field hospitals. The officers and men of the Nineteenth Iowa

had thus had ample opportunity to become acquainted with the hardships and horrors of war, in

but little more than three months from the date of their muster into the service. Death had sadly

diminished their numbers at the very beginning of the long term for which they had enlisted, but

had not affected their courage or determination to go forward in the faithful discharge of their

duty as soldiers.

Soon after the battle, the Army of the Frontier engaged in another arduous expedition, in

which the Nineteenth Iowa participated, and which resulted in the capture of Van Buren,

Arkansas, together with a number of prisoners, five steamboats and a large amount of

commissary stores. Returning from this expedition, the regiment again went into camp at Prairie

Grove, where it remained until January 2, 1863, when it again took up the line of march, moving

from point to point and watching the movements of the enemy. Feb. wary 15, 1863, the

regiment, with two companies of the First Iowa Cavalry, was stationed at Forsyth on the

Arkansas river, which place they occupied during the remainder of the winter. The regiment left

Forsyth April 22nd, and after a series of marches reached Salem, Mo., where it was temporarily

attached to the First Division under the command of General Ewing. June 3rd, the regiment

marched to Rolla, from which place it was conveyed by rail to St. Louis, where General Herron's

division was being concentrated, and embarked on steamers for Vicksburg, Miss. The regiment

was then conveyed down the river, arriving at Young's Point June 10, 1863, and from that place

moved to the rear of Vicksburg, where the siege was in progress, and was assigned to a place in

the line of investment on the right of General Herron's division, which occupied the extreme left

of the line of General Grant's army. During the remainder of the siege the Nineteenth Iowa

performed its full share of duty. In his official report Lieutenant Colonel Kent describes in detail

the arduous character of the work performed—advancing under cover of the night, digging rifle

pits, planting batteries and siege guns to bear upon the enemy's works, skirmishing with the

enemy and driving him from his advanced lines to his heavy fortifications and, upon the 4th of

July, 1863, when the glad news of the surrender was received, the marching of his regiment

inside the formidable works, which, fortunately, were not carried by assault, involving as it

would have done, a costly sacrifice of life. The report highly commends the conduct of the

officers and men during the siege and makes special mention of the constant and untiring energy

of Major Bruce in the performance of his duties.

On the 12th of July, 1863, the regiment with its division participated in an expedition which

resulted in the capture of Yazoo City on July 14th, the enemy evacuating the place on the

approach of the Union troops, a number of prisoners being taken, together with the armament of

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the works, commissary stores and a large amount of cotton. The regiment engaged in several

other expeditions within a radius of a hundred miles of Vicksburg, involving much hard

marching, and the confiscating of horses, mules and cattle for the use of the army. On July 23,

1863, the regiment embarked on steamer at Vicksburg and was conveyed to Port Hudson, La.,

arriving there on the 26th, and remaining until August 12th. A number of men died from disease

while at this camp, and there was a great deal of sickness. The next movement of the regiment

was by steamer to Carrollton, La., where the entire Thirteenth Army Corps was encamped.

On the morning of the 5th of September, the regiment with its division started up the river

upon an expedition to the mouth of Red River, where the enemy was seriously obstructing

navigation, and had captured a number of Federal transports. The regiment arrived at Morganza,

twenty miles below the mouth of Red River, September 7th, disembarked and went into camp.

The enemy was in force 12 miles from Morganza. Detachments from General Heron's division

were sent out in the direction of the enemy, and frequent skirmishes had occurred, when, on the

12th of September, the Nineteenth Iowa, Twenty-sixth Indiana and two pieces of artillery, were

ordered to the front. This detachment moved out six miles, driving the enemy's pickets before it.

It occupied this advanced position, skirmishing daily with the enemy, until September 29th,

when the battle of Sterling Farm was fought, in which the regiment suffered heavy loss in killed,

wounded and prisoners. Lieutenants Kent of company H, and Roberts of Company K, were

killed on the field. Captain Taylor, of company G, was mortally wounded. Major John Bruce

wrote the official report of this engagement, which was so disastrous to that portion of the

regiment which was engaged. As will be seen from the report which follows, there were but 260

of the Nineteenth Iowa engaged in the battle, that being the number present for duty at the time

the regiment was sent to the front.

Headquarters Nineteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry,

Brownsville, Texas, Oct. 15, 1863.

GENERAL: I have the honor to submit to you a report of the part taken by my regiment in

the engagement at Sterling Farm, fought on the 29th of September, 1863, in Point Coupee Parish,

Louisiana. On the 5th day of September, the Second Division Thirteenth Army Corps,

commanded by Major General Herron, of which command the Nineteenth Iowa formed a part,

embarked on board transports, and proceeded up the river to disperse a force under General

Taylor, which was then on the west side below the mouth of Red River, seriously threatening the

navigation of the Mississippi.

On the 8th of September the division was halted near Morganza, La., landed and proceeded

to the interior, met the enemy's pickets about two miles from the river, drove them in, and drove

the rebels back ten miles across the Atchafalaya. I was left with my regiment and two pieces of

artillery to protect the transports at the river. The division returned to the transports on the 11th.

On the 12th, the Nineteenth Iowa, Twenty-sixth Indiana, and two pieces of artillery, the whole

under command of Lieutenant Colonel Leake of the Twentieth Iowa, were ordered out to feel the

enemy. We met the enemy's pickets one mile from the river, drove them in, and soon found the

enemy in considerable force. We skirmished with them and drove them back across the

Atchafalaya, We then fell back to Sterling Farm seven miles in the interior from where the

transports lay; from this point our advance and pickets skirmished almost daily, with the advance

of the enemy. On the 29th, the enemy, having received reinforcements, turned our right and

attacked us in the rear, cutting off our retreat. He at the same time attacked us on the front. My

regiment was first called into action, met the enemy boldly and at short range, delivered a deadly

volley, which compelled him to fall back. They, however, rallied again in overwhelming force,

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and after a firm and desperate struggle in which we were well supported by the Twenty-sixth

Indiana, we were completely overpowered and compelled to surrender, many of our men,

however, refusing to give up until their guns were taken from their hands by the rebels. The

rebels were commanded by General Green in person and consisted of three brigades, in all a

force of 5,000 men; our entire force there was about 500 men. My regiment had only about 260

in the action; many having been left sick in convalescent camps at Carrollton, La., they were not

on the expedition. The fight was short, but deadly, considering the numbers engaged, the cane

and high weeds concealing the lines until they approached within pistol shot. Many of our men

escaped and came straggling into camp for two days afterwards. In the action we had killed two

officers and eight enlisted men, wounded one officer (since died) and sixteen enlisted men, and

eleven officers and 203 enlisted men taken prisoners. The loss in the Twenty-sixth Indiana not so

much as ours. The enemy's loss was fifty killed in the field and many more wounded. Great

credit is due to the officers and men of my regiment, who fought bravely and desperately against

fearful odds. The rebel officers acknowledged it was to them a dearly bought victory and were

much chagrined at finding so small a capture after so vigorous a resistance. I was not in the

engagement, having been ordered to new Orleans a few days prior. The regiment was at the time

commanded by senior Captain, Wm. Adams, Company I3:, who was taken prisoner.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN BRUCE,

Major Comd'g Nineteenth Iowa Vol., Infantry.

To N. B. BAKER, Adjutant General of Iowa. 6

6 Report of Adjutant General of Iowa for year 1864, pages 461-2.

The remainder of the regiment returned with the division to Carrollton. October 11th. Those

who had escaped capture, together with those who had recovered from sickness and were again

able for duty, now exceeded the number of those who were held by the enemy as prisoners of

war.

On October 23rd the regiment started upon an expedition the objective point of which was

Brownsville, Texas. The part taken by the Nineteenth Iowa in that important expedition is

described in the official report of its commanding Officer as follows:

Headquarters Nineteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry,

Brownsville, Texas, Dec. 1, 1863.

GENERAL: I have the honor to submit to you an account of the part taken by my regiment in

the expedition against Texas, which was under the command of Major General Banks, and

started from New Orleans on the 24th of October, 1863. On the 23rd my regiment embarked on

the steamer General Banks. The entire fleet consisted of six