The Ninth Infantry was sent to the front in 1861. Hon Wm. Vandever resigned his seat in Congress to take command of the Fifth.  The Regiment was first under fire at Pea Ridge, where it behaved gallantly. Was in the Yazoo expedition, in 1863. The Third Iowa Battery was recruited as a component part of the Ninth. The regiment participated in the movements against Atlanta and in the famous march through the Carolinas under an Iowa officer, and, with three other Iowa regiments, captured Columubia.