Iowa History Project
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Picture included in this chapter is of the Battle of
Iuka.
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The companies composing the regiment were raised and
organized the regiment were raised and organized in their respective
neighborhoods soon after the fall of Fort Sumter, when the spirit of patriotism
was sending the best men of the country into the volunteer service. But there
was no room for them under the first call of the President and they waited for
the next summons. The companies were enlisted in the counties of Cedar, Jasper,
Louisa, Keokuk, Buchanan, Marshall, Benton, Jackson, Allamakee and Van Buren.
The
first officers of the Fifth Regiment were: W. H. Worthington, colonel; C. L.
Matthies, lieutenant-colonel; W. S. Robertson, major; John S. Foley, adjutant;
Dr. C. H. Rawson, surgeon; R. F. Patterson, quartermaster, and A. B. Mederia,
chaplain. The regiment numbered nine hundred and eighteen men when it went into
camp at Burlington, on the 15th
of July, 1861. After two weeks, it was moved to Keokuk and, while there, a
detachment under Lieutenant-Colonel Matthies was sent in pursuit of the Rebel
force under Green, who had recently marched to Athens on the Iowa border, where
he had been driven off by Colonel Moore. The detachment did rapid marching, but
was unable to overtake Green, who fled south. On the 12th of August,
the regiment was sent to St. Louis by steamer, where arms were received. Soon
after it was sent to Jefferson City, where the men were clothed in United
states uniform and received other equipments for the field. The regiment was
employed in various parts of Missouri until the 14th of October,
when it was attached to General Pope’s Division of Fremont’s army, on the march
to southwestern Missouri. After a long march the regiment returned to Syracuse.
During most of the winter Colonel
Worthington was in command of a brigade and the Fifth was commanded by
Lieutenant-Colonel Matthies. In February, after Grant’s victory at Donelson,
the Fifth was sent with General Pope, who was marching his army against New
Madrid. General Pope had recently pronounced the Fifth Iowa the most soldierly
appearing regiment he had seen in Missouri, and it was under the rigid drill
and discipline of colonel Worthington that his men had in, so short a period,
become such thorough soldiers. The regiment did excellent service in the siege
and capture of New Madrid, and also in the taking of Island Number Ten. In May
the Fifth was with Pope, near Corinth, where, on the 22d, Colonel Worthington
was accidentally killed. He was officer of the day and, while approaching one
of the picket lines, was mistaken for an enemy by the frightened sentinel, and
shot dead. Colonel Worthington was an excellent officer and had been
recommended for promotion; had he survived the siege of Corinth, he would have
been made a Brigadier-General. Upon his death, General Pope issued the
following order:
Headquarters Army of the Mississippi
New Farmington, May 22, 2862.
The
General commanding announces with great regret to the army, the death of
Colonel W. H. Worthington, Fifth, Iowa volunteers. He was keeled by an
unfortunate accident at three o’clock this morning while in the discharge of
his duties as general officer of the day. In the death of Colonel Worthington,
this army has sustained a serious loss, and his place in the regiment will be
hard to fill. Prompt, gallant and patriotic, a brilliant career in the military
profession was before him… Sad as is his fate, he had lived long enough to be
mourned by his country, and have his memory cherished by the army with which he
served.
By order of Major-General Pope
He
was succeeded in command of the regiment by Lieutenant-Colonel Matthies. At the
close of General Halleck’s slow approach on Corinth, finding it evacuated, his
army followed some distance on the line of retreat of General Beauregard,
without approaching that wily General. By the 11th of June the Fifth
was back with the army in camp, near Corinth. In august the regiment was at
Jacinto, where it remained until the day before the Battle of Iuka. Major
Robertson had resigned and Captain E. s. Sampson had been promoted to
lieutenant-colonel, and Captain Jabez Banbury had become major.
General Pope had been called to the command of the Army
of the Potomac and was succeeded by General Rosecrans, General Grant commanding
the Department. General Price, with a large Confederate army, had seized Iuka
Iuka and captured a large amount of stores. General Grant, who was at Corinth
threatened by a large army under Van Dorn, determined to attack and destroy
Price’s army at Iuka. He ordered General Ord, with 6,000 men, to move on Price
by roads north of the railroad, while Rosecrans with 9,000, should move south
by Jacinto and assail him from that direction. Price did not wait to be caught
in the trap laid for him but marched out to overwhelm Rosecrans before Ord
appeared. Two miles from Iuka, Price found a strong position protected by
swamps and hills. As Rosecrans approached the head of his column was fiercely
attacked. The Eleventh Ohio Battery took position on the crest of a hill
commanding the road in front. The Fifth Iowa was posted on the right and the
Forty-eight Indiana on the left. The Twenty-sixth Missouri was in the rear of
the battery. This was the entire front opposed to the Confederate army, 10,000
strong, moving against Rosecrans’ advance. This line was hastily formed under a
heavy fire of artillery and musketry from Price’s army in its strong position.
A sharp fire was opened by the Union line as other regiments were brought up to
positions on the flanks. The Tenth and Sixteenth Iowa were among the regiments
warmly engaged. The battle opened about 5 p.m., and raged until darkness put an
end to the conflict. No more desperate fighting was done during the war than
that which, for four hours sent death and destruction into the fiercely
contending ranks at the front. Again and again the Confederates charged on our
lines and were as often beaten back by the devouring flame of shot and shell
that mowed them down. In the vicinity of the Ohio battery the combat raged with
terrible fury. The guns were handled with wonderful effect, constantly hurling
their iron missiles into the enemy’s ranks at close range. A supreme effort was
made by Price to capture that death-dealing battery. A large force was massed
and ordered to take it at any cost. Before this irresistible charge, the
forty-eighth Indiana was swept from its position and the left of the battery
fell into the hands of the enemy. Fresh troops came to the rescue, charge
bayonets on the exultant captors and drove them from the guns. Three times in
an hour this battery was taken and recaptured. Most of the gunners were killed
or wounded, the horses were all dead or disabled, the battery was a mass of
ruins, the guns dismounted were the only remnants that had escaped the awful
destruction. When darkness put an end to the struggle the guns were in the
hands of the enemy, but the Union lines held their position, the men sleeping
on their arms. During the night, Price retreated to Eastport, and the Union
army marched into Iuka. General Rosecrans said of the Fifth Iowa:
“The
glorious Fifth Iowa under the brave and distinguished Matthies, sustained by
Boomer with part of his noble little Twenty-sixth Missouri, bore the
thrice-repeated charges and cross-fires of the enemy’s left and center with a
valor and determination, never excelled by the most veteran soldiery.”
General Hamilton,
in his official report, says:
“The
Fifth Iowa under the brave and accomplished Matthies held its ground against
four times its number, making three desperate charges with the bayonet, driving
back the foe in disorder each time; until with every cartridge exhausted, it
fell back slowly and sullenly, making every step a battle ground and every
charge a victory.”
Colonel
Matthies commends his officers and men without exception, and speaks in the
highest terms of Lieutenant-Colonel Sampson, Adjutant Patterson and Lieutenant
Marshall. The loss of the regiment at Iuka was more than two hundred and twenty
killed and wounded. Among the officers killed were Lieutenants Shawl, Holcomb
and Smith. Of other Iowa regiments in the battle, the tenth and Sixteenth were
particularly distinguished for bravery and valuable services. The Seventeenth,
under colonel Rankin, was thrown into confusion for a time, and was unjustly
censured by the commanding General; colonel Matthies was promoted to
Brigadier-General soon after the battle. On the 1st of October, the
Fifth marched to Corinth and, during the battle of the 3d, was posted on the
road to Pittsburg Landing, some distance from the scene of conflict. The next
day, however, it fought bravely, repulsing a charge on the Eleventh Ohio
Battery. The charge was made on the right of the battery, and in repelling it,
the Fifth marched on the double-quick to the threatened point, fired four
volleys into the advancing enemy, driving them back in great confusion. It
joined in the pursuit of the defeated Confederate army some distance, returning
to camp at Corinth, on the 11th, greatly fatigued. From this time
until March, 1863, the regiment was on duty in Mississippi and Tennessee, but
engaged in no battles. On the 2d of March, it joined Grant in the campaign
against Vicksburg. It was in the battle before Jackson, on the 14th
of May, suffering small loss. At the severe battle at Champion’s Hill, on the
16th, the Fifth was in thickest of the fight. The Third Brigade, to
which it belonged, held the left of Crocker’s Division. When General Hovey’s
right was driven in, the Third Brigade hurried to its aid and a fierce conflict
ensued. For an hour and a half the unequal contest was maintained before the
brigade was forced back by overwhelming numbers. Just at this moment, the
Seventeenth Iowa came to its relief, the tide was turned, and the Confederate
army was soon in full retreat toward Vicksburg. Lieutenant-Colonel Sampson was
in command of the regiment. On the 1st of June Major Banbury was
promoted to colonel; Adjutant Marshall was promoted to major, and S. H. M.
Byers to adjutant. The loss of the Fifth at Champion’s Hill was nineteen killed
and seventy-five wounded. In the campaign under General Sherman, which followed
the capture of Vicksburg, the Fifth assisted in driving Johnston’s army out of
the State, after which it did garrison duty in Vicksburg for two months. The
Fifth was attached to General Sherman’s army in the march to Chattanooga in
November, and in the battles that were fought about that city and among the
mountains the regiment bore an honorable part. Near Tunnel Hill, it fought
bravely on the 25th of November, but toward night was
overcome by superior numbers; Major Marshall, Adjutant Byers and many of the
men, with the colors, were captured, while others escaped by running through a
terrible fire of shot and shell. The regiment’s loss in killed, wounded and
missing was one hundred and six. Colonel Banbury closed his official report of
the part his regiment took in this campaign as follows:
“I
can bear testimony to the manner in which my brave men have performed the hard
labor, endured the severe privations of the campaign, especially during the
last week of November, following upon the long fatiguing march over two hundred
miles. They were up at midnight of the 23d, fortifying and maneuvering for
battle all day the 24th, fighting desperately and under most
unfavorable circumstances on the 25th, pursuing the enemy on the 26th
and 27th, without rations or blankets, shivering around the
campfires during the nights, marching through rain and mud during the days, and
returning to camp twenty-two miles on the 28th. All this in the dead
of winter and without a murmur.”
The services of
the Fifth had been most arduous in two of the remarkable campaigns in military
history—says Ingersoll:
“It
had marched through the swamps of Louisiana; marched and fought over the hills
of Mississippi; rushed under the guns of Vicksburg in the terrible unavailing
assault; sweltered in the heat under those formidable works during long weeks
of siege; commenced another campaign before that was finished and materially
assisted in bringing it to a successful close; by steamer, railway and march,
traveling five hundred miles to join in the final grand victory of the year,
whereby the backbone of the Rebellion was broken, and its complete destruction
made a question of time.”
Campaigns
like these had fearfully reduced the ranks of the splendid regiment that, two
and a half years before, had marched proudly to the levee at Burlington, in the
full vigor of young manhood. Now, in January, 1864, as the remnant took its
line of march to Huntsville, Alabama, to go into winter quarters, there were
scarcely two hundred of the original nine hundred and eighteen men remaining.
While here one hundred and eighteen men remaining. While here, one hundred and
fifty members of the regiment (being most of the men present, fit for duty)
reenlisted as veterans and, on the 1st of April, started on furlough
to visit their homes in Iowa. They returned in May to join their brigade at
Decatur, Alabama. A number of the members of this regiment were taken prisoners
by a cavalry raid. On the 30th of July, the non-veterans were
honorable mustered out and soon after the veterans were transferred to the
Fifth Iowa Cavalry, and with this event the history of the Fifth Iowa Infantry
closed.
During
its three years’ service, the Fifth had marched on foot more than 2,000 miles,
through Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi,
Alabama and Georgia, participating in Fremont’s “One Hundred Days’ Campaign” in
1861; in Pope’s campaign against New Madrid and Island Number Ten; in Grant’s
campaigns of Iuka, Corinth, Vicksburg and Chattanooga; some of the most
brilliant of the war, or of history. Its ranks were thinned by battle, hard
marches, captures and sickness, until it closed its glorious record of deeds
that can never be forgotten in Iowa’s war history.
John A. McDowell, who was a brother of the first
commander of the Army of the Potomac, was living at Keokuk when the Rebellion
began. He had a military education and had served as captain of an independent
company. Early in the spring of 1861 he went to Washington and obtained
authority of the War Department to raise a regiment. The companies were largely
enlisted in the counties of Lee, Henry, Des Moines, Appanoose, Monroe, Clarke,
Lucas, Johnson, Linn, Hardin and Franklin. A large proportion of the men were
young vigorous farmers and mechanics inured to labor, and were physically fine
specimens of manhood. The Sixth Regiment, numbering eight hundred and
eighty-three men, went into camp at Burlington early in July. John A. McDowell
was appointed colonel; Markoe Cummins, lieutenant-colonel; J. M. Corse, major;
E. B. Woodward, adjutant; James Brunaugh, quartermaster; A. T. Shaw, surgeon; and
John Ufford, chaplain. The regiment was sent to Keokuk soon after Colonel Moore
defeated General Greene, who attempted to cross the river at Croton and invade
Iowa. A detachment of the Sixth was sent to reinforce Moore at Croton, but
Green had been defeated before they reached the field. General John C. Fremont
was at this time in command of the Department of Missouri. On the 31st
of August he issued his famous order placing the State under martial law,
confiscating the property of Rebels and declaring the slaves of those engaged
in war against the Government, free. The State was overrun by armed bands of
confederates destroying the property of Union men, driving them from their
homes or murdering them. General Fremont had, with great energy, succeeded in gathering
at Tipton, the western terminus of the Pacific Railroad, an army of 30,000 men.
The Sixth Iowa was of this army. In October the army marched toward
Springfield. It was a hard march with insufficient means of transportation, bad
roads, and the men suffered greatly. The Sixth was in General McKinstry’s
command which marched seventy miles the last two days of October. General
Fremont was suddenly removed from command in the midst of this campaign, from
which so much was expected; General Hunter, who succeeded him abandoned
southwest Missouri, retreating to the railroad, thus suddenly bringing the
campaign to an end.
The
Sixth Iowa was divided, six companies were at Tipton on garrison duty and four
companies were sent on similar service to Syracuse. Colonel McDowell had
command of a brigade; Lieutenant-Colonel Cummins, who was in command of the
Sixth Iowa, was placed under arrest for misconduct early in the day, and
Captain John Williams led the regiment in the battle. After two hours of brave
fighting, the Sixth, with Sherman’s entire command, was forced back on the
Purdy road. Another stand was made in the edge of the woods, some distance in
the rear where for two hours the advance of the Confederate army was
successfully resisted by most determined fighting. Here the Sixth lost heavily;
Captain Williams was severely wounded, and the command devolved on Captain M.
M. Walden. Of the six hundred and fifty men in the regiment when the battle
opened, sixty-four were killed, one hundred wounded and forty-seven taken
prisoners. Among the killed were Captains Daniel Isminger and Richard C. White.
Captain F. Brydolf and lieutenants J. H. Orman, J. T. Grimes and J. S. Halliday
were wounded, and Captain Galland was captured. Not long after the battle,
Major Corse returned to the regiment and was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in
place of Cummins, who was dismissed from the service by court-martial. Captain
John Williams was promoted to major. McDowell remained with his brigade on duty
in Tennessee and Mississippi until March, 1863, when he resigned, being
disabled by disease. On the 29th of March, Corse was made colonel of
the regiment. The Sixth was with Grant’s army in its first unsuccessful
campaign against Vicksburg in the fall of 1862. During the winter of 1862-’63,
the regiment was attached to General W. S. Smith’s command and served in
several raids into Mississippi. Major Williams resigned in October, 1862, and
Captain A. J. Miller, promoted to his place, was made lieutenant-colonel in
July, 1863, and Adjutant Ennis was made major. In General Sherman’s march against
Johnston, after the fall of Vicksburg in July, 1863, the Sixth was attached to
his command.
On the 6th of July, the army crossed the Black
River and drove the enemy toward Jackson, a place now strongly fortified. The
weather was very hot, the dust stifling, and the movement of the army was slow.
On the 9th, it reached the vicinity of formidable earthworks and by
the 13th, held all of the roads west of the Pearl River, while
artillery commanded the State House. General Sherman erected earthworks to
protect his men and began the siege, as the place was too strong to be carried
by assault. On the 12th of July, while the thirteenth Corps was
moving up to make the investment complete on the right, General J. G. Lauman,
of Iowa, commanding a division, through a misapprehension ordered an assault by
a brigade upon the enemy’s works. Success was impossible and the brigade, after
a terrible conflict, was driven back with a loss of nearly five hundred men.
The Third Iowa, led by Major G. W. Crosley, fought with desperate valor and loft
one hundred and fourteen men. General Lauman was at once relieved of command by
General Ord. On the 16th Colonel Corse, in command of the
skirmishers of the First Division of the Sixteenth Corps, made a strong reconnaissance
of the enemy’s works to ascertain the strength and position of his batteries.
The Sixth Iowa was in the command, and at a signal, the men dashed forward with
a shout, driving in the pickets and skirmishers and charging a strong battery.
Here the men were ordered to lie down, as the battery was too strong to be
taken. After ascertaining the strength of the lines and defenses, the troops
were skillfully withdrawn with small loss. The Sixth received special
commendation on this occasion from General Smith for coolness and bravery under
a terrific fire. On the same night the Confederate army evacuated the city and
retreated toward the east. The loss of the Sixth during the siege was about seventy
men. When General Sherman marched to Chattanooga, in the fall of 1863, the
Sixth Iowa was with him, and participated in the Battle of Missionary Ridge,
losing sixty-nine men. Major Ennis was severely wounded and Captain Robert
Allison was killed. After the great victories at Chattanooga, the Sixth was
sent with Sherman’s army to relieve General Burnside, who was besieged by
Longstreet at Knoxville. The march was begun on the 1st of December,
over roads almost impassable; the bridges had been destroyed and many of the
rivers could not be forded. The weather was cold and the army in its forced
march could carry neither baggage nor provisions. Early in 1864, the sixth went
into camp at Scottsburg, Alabama, where it remained until spring. Early in
March, 1864, most of the men reenlisted, were granted furlough, and the Sixth
became a veteran regiment. On the 27th of April they were again on
duty, soon after joining General Sherman’s army at Chattanooga. In the campaign
through Georgia, the Sixth participated in the battles of Resaca, Dallas, New
Hope Church, Big Shanty, Kenesaw Mountain, Atlanta, Jonesboro and Lovejoy. At
Dallas, Colonel Miller was disabled and Major Ennis succeeded him in command.
Adjutant Newby was mortally wounded and Lieutenant F. J. Baldwin was killed. At
Big Shanty, Lieutenant J. T. Grimes, acting adjutant, was killed and din the
Battle of Atlanta, July 28th, major Ennis, commanding the regiment,
was mortally wounded and Lieutenant J. T. Grimes, acting adjutant, was killed
and in the Battle of Atlanta, July 28th, Major Ennis, commanding the
regiment, was mortally wounded. After Major Ennis fell, Captain W. H. Clune
took command and led it through this most desperate battle of the campaign.
During these battles, from Resaca to Lovejoy, the losses of the Sixth were one
hundred and fifty men, killed, wounded and missing, or about one half of the whole
number that marched from Chattanooga. The regiment with the army, resumed the
march toward the sea about the middle of November. Robert Barr, a member of the
Sixth, first discovered the evacuation of Savannah on the 21st of
December, and was the first man of the Union army to enter the city. The
regiment remained here about three weeks, and before resuming its march Major
Clune was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, and Captain D. J. McCoy, major. About
the middle of January, 1865, the army moved on through South Carolina and the
swamps and gloomy forests, driving the Confederate army before it, wherever
resistance was offered, until the last battle was fought at Bentonsville, North
Carolina. The Sixth went to Goldsboro and Raleigh, marched on by way of
Richmond to Washington and participated in the grand review. The little remnant
of this once strong regiment, now veterans and heroes of many battle-fields,
their colors torn to shred, marched proudly before the vast multitudes gathered
to do honor to the survivors of the grand Union army. It was one of the early Iowa
regiments which had shared in so many of the hard marches of the southwestern
campaigns, and hundreds at the national Capital, who knew its history, cheered
the war-worn veterans as they marched through the streets at the close of the
war.
The
second colonel, J. M. Corse, had won national fame in the Atlanta campaign by
his heroic defense of Allatoona Pass, a very important position. Corse, who now
a Brigadier-General, was in command of the place with 1,800 men. General French,
with a Confederate army of 7,000, was marching against it. General Sherman
signaled to him across the mountains to hold the pass at all hazards. Corse
signaled back, “I will hold it till h--- freezes over,” and he did hold it
after a heroic defense of many hours. Moody’s celebrated hymn, “Hold the Fort
for I am Coming,” was suggested to its author by this episode.
The
Sixth regiment went to Parkersburg, Virginia, after the grand review, was transported
by steamer down the Ohio River to Louisville, Kentucky, and in July returned to
Iowa, and was disbanded.