Iowa History Project
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Pictures included in this chapter are of General William Vandever,
Battle of Pea Ridge and Colonel H. H. Trimble.
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In July,
1861, immediately after the disastrous defeat of the Union army at Bull Run,
Hon. William Vandever, the Republican member of congress from the second
district of Iowa, tendered to secretary Cameron of the War Department a
regiment to be raised in his district. His offer was promptly accepted and in a
few weeks recruits were gathering at Dubuque. The regiment was composed of
companies enlisted largely from the counties of Jackson, Jones, Buchanan,
Clayton, Fayette, Black Hawk, Winneshiek, Howard, Bremer, Linn, and numbered
nine hundred and seventy-seven men. The field and staff officers were William
Vandever, colonel; F. J. Herron, lieutenant-colonel; W. H. Coyle, major;
William Scott, adjutant; F. S. Winslow, quartermaster; Benj. McClure, surgeon;
A. B. Kendig, chaplain. A few days after being mustered into service on the 24th
of September, 1861, the regiment was sent to Benton Barracks, near St. Louis.
For three months it was engaged in guarding the railroad from Rolla to Franklin
and in drilling in camp of instruction. On the 22d of January, 1862, joining
the Army of the Southwest, under General Samuel R. Curtis, Colonel Vandever was
placed in command of the Second Brigade, consisting of the Ninth Iowa,
Twenty-fifth Missouri, Third Illinois Cavalry, and the Third Iowa Battery; this
brigade was in General Carr’s Division. The army marched to Springfield, in
pursuit of General Price. He retreated to Arkansas, followed by General Curtis.
In a skirmish at Sugar Creek the Ninth was under fire. Here was encountered a
large force of the enemy supported by a battery and charging under a sharp
fire, it was driven in confusion from its position. On the 4th of
March Colonel Vandever, with a portion of his brigade, was sent to Huntsville,
fifteen miles distant. He there learned that General Price had received heavy
reinforcements from McCollough and Van Dorn and that the Confederate army,
40,000 strong, was now marching rapidly north under Major General Van Dorn, to
attack Curtis. Vandever, in order to rejoin Curtis and avoid Van Dorn, was
obliged to make a circuit of about forty miles. Starting at four o’clock in the
morning, in a snow storm, in a forced march of fourteen hours, he reached Pea
Ridge, where Curtis had taken position and formed his lines of battle. His
little army numbered but 10,500 men of all arms, with forty-nine pieces of
artillery. General Sigel, at Bentonsville, with part of two divisions, on the
morning of the 6th, started to join Curtis.
General Sigel
was bringing up a small detachment of his command some distance in the rear,
when he as attacked by the enemy and cut off from his main body. Help was soon
sent and by sharp fighting his detachment was relieved with a loss of about
thirty. Curtis now completed his lines, formed along the bluffs and ridges of
Sugar Creek. In front was a broad valley, through which he expected the enemy
to approach. In the rear of his army, which extended along the creek for
several miles, was a broken plateau called Pea Ridge and still farther in the
rear was the deep valley of Cross Timbers. The enemy approached on the extreme
right of the Union lines, moving around to strike the flank and rear of the
Union army at the same time, expecting with his greatly superior force to drive
it in confusion and destroy it. Curtis saw his design and hastily reformed his
lines, bringing his army face to face with the enemy. In order to gain time to
complete his new line of battle, as his little army was almost surrounded,
Curtis ordered an attack on the Confederate flank, led by General Osterhaus.
The Third Iowa Cavalry and other detachments of horse were in this opening
charge, and assailed the enemy with great vigor, but after a desperate struggle
were driven back with heavy loss of men and one battery. The sacrifice,
however, enabled Curtis to place his army advantageously in the new position
just as the heavy columns of the enemy swept down on Carr’s Division. And now
the battle was on. One thousand Indians, under Pike, aided the confederates
with fierce war cries, tomahawks and scalping knives, adding to the horrors of
one of the great battles of the war. On this part of the line the Dubuque
Battery, under Captain Hayden, opened on the advancing enemy, doing great
execution. The Confederates made a fierce charge upon the battery, captured one
gun, but the Ninth Iowa poured a deadly volley into them, covering the ground
with their dead. Dodge’s Brigade, on the right, was assailed and a section of
the First Iowa Battery, under Lieutenant David, opened fire on the lines. The
brigade for two hours held its position against greatly superior numbers.
Colonel Vandever’s Brigade, after a stubborn fight and heavy loss, had been
slowly driven back, Dodge firing his last round of ammunition into the
confederate ranks, and General Curtis ordering the Fourth Iowa to charge
bayonets, the enemy was driven back.
In this day’s
battle the Iowa regiments suffered severely, nearly two hundred each had been
the losses of the Fourth and Ninth regiments. The latter had not a field
officer left on duty. Lieutenant-Colonel Herron was taken prisoner and promoted
to Brigadier-General for gallant conduct. Major Coyle and Adjutant Scott were
wounded. When darkness put an end to the conflict the situation of the army was
serious. All day it had fought with heroic courage against the best Confederate
army of the south-west, ably commanded and outnumbering Curtis’ men two to one.
The losses had been heavy and the right wing, after a most desperate struggle,
had been forced from its position, while the enemy was still encircling it in
front and rear. All night was spent by Curtis in forming a new line of battle and
there was little sleep in the camp. Early on the morning of the 8th
the battle was renewed all along the lines by a heavy fire of artillery. This
was followed by a general advance of the Union army, which charged with such
fierce determination and unflinching courage that the Confederate lines began
to weaken. The batteries were now pouring in such a deadly fire that a number
of Confederate positions were taken. The enemy’s lines began to waver before
the steady storm of shot and shell, but as Davis, Sigel and Carr closed in on
them with volleys of musketry, they were met by a deadly fire at short range,
which rapidly thinned our ranks. Slowly the confederates were crowded out of
the woods into the open field, where their lines were broken, and the men at last
turned and fled in confusion.
The Confederate
army suffered very severely in this battle. Two distinguished Generals,
McCulloch and McIntosh, were killed, and Generals Price and Slack were wounded,
besides the loss of minor officers and men of not less than 2,500. The Union
loss was two hundred and three killed and a little more than 1,000 wounded and
prisoners. The Ninth Iowa lost two hundred and eighteen men; the Fourth, one
hundred and sixty; the Third Cavalry, fifty; the two Iowa batteries, thirty-nine.
Ingersoll says
of this battle:
“Whether
considered in reference to the skill with which the troops were maneuvered or
the valor with which they fought, the battle of Pea Ridge must be placed among
the most memorable and honorable victories of the war. In a field far removed
from General Curtis’ base of supplies, in a country much better known to the
enemy than to him; that enemy outnumbered him more than two to one. Yet he
defeated him so thoroughly, that his scattered squads were driven in panic far
away to the south.”
Iowa men had
borne a most conspicuous part in this great battle and contributed largely to
the glorious victory.
The commanding
General, Samuel R. Curtis, was an Iowa Congressman who had resigned his seat at
the beginning of the war to enter the army. In this campaign and battle he had
exhibited the rare qualities of an able and successful military commander. It
is not too much to say that no General of the Union army won a victory against
such superior numbers and no one fought a more difficult battle, requiring rare
exercise of skill and resources to meet the sudden and unexpected emergencies
of the battle-field. Colonels Vandever and Dodge, of Iowa, were in command of
brigades. Colonel Dodge and Lieutenant-Colonel Herron, who commanded the Ninth,
was wounded. These three Iowa regiments and the brigades commanded by Dodge and
Vandever were in the thickest of the two days’ battle, and none surpassed them
in coolness, courage and stubborn fighting. The First and Third Iowa batteries
also did excellent service.
“The Fourth and
Ninth Iowa,” says General Curtis, “won imperishable honor,” and Colonels Dodge
and Vandever are especially commended. Among the killed of the Ninth were
Captains Drips and Bevins, and Lieutenant Rice, while Lieutenants Kelsey, Neff
and Captain Towner were wounded, the army took up its march to Helena. While in
camp here, the Ninth Regiment was presented with a stand of beautiful silk
colors by a committee of ladies, of Boston, in appreciation of its gallant
conduct at Pea Ridge. In November Colonel Vandever was promoted to
Brigadier-General. The Ninth was now assigned to Thayer’s Brigade of Steele’s
Division, and joined Sherman’s army in the expedition against Vicksburg. It
took part in the disastrous Battle of Chickasaw Bayou, after which it went to
Milliken’s Bend, where General McClernand succeeded to the command of the army.
During the year 1862 the regiment had lost by death, capture and discharge,
three hundred and twenty-five men, and gained fifty-six by enlistment, so that
it numbered seven hundred and twenty-six at the beginning of 1863. The new year
opened with the capture of Arkansas Post, after which the Ninth was sent with
the army to Young’s Point, opposite Vicksburg. The encampment was in a swamp
near the river, where for long weeks, amid rain and floods, the camp was nearly
submerged. Sickness and death were thinning the ranks, and acres of graves were
made in the oozing swamps. The army was at last driven by the floods to the levee,
where, cooped up between the river and the vast overflowed stretch of lowland,
the men had to lie in their camps day after day, listless and despondent. As
the floods increased malaria invaded every camp, the swamps and graveyards were
overflowed, and the dead had to share with the living the narrow levee, the
only land above the all-pervading waters. Here, amid the gloom and despair that
prevailed, hundreds of the bravest and noblest young men of western homes
sickened and died, with the sad thought that none of the glory of the
battle-field would temper the tidings of their fate to distant friends, and
their deaths could contribute nothing to aid the great cause they had
volunteered to serve. For more than two months the Ninth suffered in these swamps.
In June, 1863,
Captain Carskaddon, of Company K, was promoted to colonel of the regiment, as
Lieutenant-Colonel Herron had been made a Brigadier-General on the 29th
of November of the same year he was again promoted to Major-General; and major
Coyle was promoted to lieutenant-colonel; Captain Carpenter, of Company B,
became major and Lieutenant Mackenzie, adjutant.
The Ninth next
marched with General Steele in his expedition to Greenville, Mississippi, and
after its return in April, joined in Grant’s campaign against Vicksburg. It
sent with Sherman in the movement against Jackson which resulted in its
capture.
In June, 1863,
Captain Carskaddon, of Company K, was promoted to colonel of the regiment, as
Lieutenant Herron had been made a
Brigadier-General on the 29th of November of the same year he was
again promoted to Major-General; and Major Coyle was promoted to Major-General;
and Major Coyle was promoted to lieutenant-colonel; Captain Carpenter, of
Company B became major and Lieutenant Mackenzie, adjutant.
The Ninth next
marched with General Steele in his expedition to Greenville, Mississippi, and
after its return in April, joined in Grant’s campaign against Vicksburg. It was
sent with Sherman in the movement against Jackson which resulted in its capture.
The regiment returned to the army before to the army before Vicksburg on the 18th
of May, and took part in the assault of the next day, in which it lost a number
of men. In the general assault of the next day, in which it lost a number of
men. In the general assault of the 22d, the Ninth made a gallant fight under
the lead of Captain Washburn, who was three times wounded in the charge and
died from his injuries at his home on the 16th of June. Among the
killed in this charge were Captain F. M. Kelsey, and Lieutenant Jones, Tyrell
and Wilbur. Lieutenants Little and Sutherland were among the wounded. Sergeant
J. M. Elson, the color bearer, while gallantly scaling the earthworks, was shot
through both thighs and, as he fell, the flag was seized by Lieutenant Granger
and brought off the field. During the siege the regiment lost one hundred and
twenty-one men, killed and wounded. Immediately after the surrender, the Ninth
was sent with Sherman against General Johnston’s army, and participated in the
siege and capture of Jackson. Colonel Williamson, of the Fourth Iowa, now took
command of the brigade in which were the Ninth and other Iowa regiments,
marching to Chattanooga to participate in the brilliant campaign under Grant.
On the 23d of
November, after a march of three hundred miles, their tents were pitched at the
foot of Lookout Mountain. Twenty four hours later the Ninth was charging up the
steep and rugged mountain side and fighting the great battle up above the
clouds. It joined in the pursuit of Hood’s beaten and flying army, fought at
Ringgold, and on the 27th was again moving against the enemy. Its
losses in these engagements were three killed and sixteen wounded. Winter
quarters were at Woodville, Alabama, where early in January, 1864, about three hundred
of its members reenlisted as veterans. A month’s furlough enabled them to
return to their homes. At Dubuque a royal reception greeted them and citizens
return to their homes. At Dubuque a royal reception greeted them and the
citizens gave them an ovation that testified their appreciation of the many
gallant deeds of the regiment. At their various homes the veteran soldiers
received the warmest welcome that loyal people could bestow. Many recruit were
added to the regiment, and in March, under command of Major George Granger, the
successor to Major Carpenter (who had died of consumption), it returned to
Woodville. On the 1st of May, Colonel Carskaddon, who had been
absent on account of illness, joined the regiment and it took up the line of
march from Chattanooga to join in Sherman’s Atlanta campaign. For four months
it participated in the hard marches, skirmishes, sieges and battles of that
expedition. It took part in the battles of Resaca, Dallas, New Hope, Big
Shanty, Keneshaw, Chattahoochee River, Decatur, Atlanta, Jonesboro and Lovejoy.
The losses in these engagements were fourteen killed and seventy-six wounded
and missing. In the battle before Atlanta, on the 22d of July, the left wing of
the army was furiously assailed by Hood. General McDe Grass’ Battery of
twenty-four pound Parrott guns had been captured, the left wing forced back and
its center broken. Colonel Williamson in command of the Second Brigade,
consisting of the Fourth, Ninth and Twenty-fifth Iowa, was ordered to charge on
and recapture the lost battery. There was a deep ravine in front and through it
the brigade moved with firm tread, climbed the steep banks and charge with
great impetuosity straight upon the battery. So fierce was the assault on the
flank that the enemy had scarcely time to fire before overwhelmed by the Fourth
and Ninth Iowa, the guns were recaptured and turned on the foe. This gallant
charge was under the eye of the commanding general and was one of the most
brilliant episodes of that great battle. In the fight of the 28th,
Colonel Carskaddon was wounded. After the fall of Atlanta the Ninth marched
with the army to Savannah, which was taken December 21st. During the
march to Savannah the Ninth was under command of the regiment sailed to
Beaufort, South Carolina. Colonel Carskaddon, whose term of service had
expired, was honorably discharged on the 29th of December, and Major
Alonzo Abernethy succeeded to the command of the regiment. He was a brother of
Lieutenant-Colonel Jacob Abernethy of the Third Iowa, who was killed in the
battle before Atlanta July 22d. Both had entered the service as sergeant and
rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. On the 19th of June, 1865,
Major Alonzo Abernethy was promoted to that rank.
The northward
march began on the 26th of January, 1865, and the regiment reached
Alexandria, Virginia, on the 19th of May. In the last campaign it
had done hard service in the swamps of South Carolina, building corduroy roads,
bridges, and erecting intrenchments. In skirmish and battle it always fought with
bravery. The regiment was in the Iowa Brigade under Colonel Stone, which held
an important point in the capture of Columbia. It was in the grand review at
Washington, after which, at Louisville, on the 18th of July, it was
mustered out of the service, numbering at the time five hundred and ninety-five
men. Lieutenant-Colonel Coyle, who had been absent from the regiment for two
years, serving as Judge Advocate in the Department of Kentucky and one the
staff of General J. M. Palmer, was mustered out of the service at the same
time. During the term of service the Ninth Iowa Infantry had marched more than
4,000 miles, been transported by railroad and steamer more than 6,000 and
participated in the skirmishes and battles of Pea Ridge, Chickasaw Bayou,
Arkansas Post, Jackson, assault and siege of Vicksburg, siege of Jackson,
Brandon, Cherokee, Lookout Mountain, Missionary
Ridge, Ringgold, Resaca, Dallas, New Hope, Big Shanty, Kenesaw,
Chattahoochee, Atlanta, Jonesboro, Lovejoy Station, Savannah, Columbia and Bentonsville.
It had furnished the service Major-General Herron, Brigadier-General Herron,
Brigadier-General Vandever and Judge Advocate Coyle.
This regiment
was made up of companies raised in the counties of Polk, Boone, Warren, Tama,
Madison, Greene, Jasper, Poweshiek and Washington. It numbered nine hundred and
thirteen men, who went into camp at Iowa City and were mustered into service in
September and October, 1861. After which, at Cape Girardeau, the men were
drilled. The first field and staff officers were: Nicholas Purczel, colonel; W.
E. Small, lieutenant-colonel; J. C. Bennett, major; W. P. Davis, surgeon; T. W.
Jackson, adjutant; John Truesdale, quartermaster; D. W. Tolford, chaplain. On
the 13th of December the regiment went into winter quarters at
Bird’s Point. On the 8th of January, 1862, Colonel Purczel was sent
with his regiment to capture a body of Rebels reported to be at Charleston,
twelve miles distant. The night was dark, the rain falling in torrents and the
line of march led through swamps, where the roads were nearly impassable. While
slowly feeling their way in storm and darkness, the men were suddenly fired
upon by an enemy in ambush and thrown into confusion. Quickly rallying, the
regiment returned fire in the direction of the concealed foe, the strength of
which was unknown. The enemy was soon dislodged and scattered and the regiment
marched on beyond Charleston. The Tenth lost in this first fight, eight men
killed and sixteen wounded. In February the regiment joined General Pope’s New
Madrid expedition. That place was defended by five regiments of infantry and
several companies of artillery, and strongly fortified by earthworks, upon
which were mounted twenty-one heavy guns. Six gunboats, carrying from four to six
heavy guns each, were anchored along the shore between the upper and lower
redoubts. Thus the approaches to the town were commanded by direct and
cross-fire with at least sixty guns of heavy caliber. General Pope sent a
detachment of infantry with a battery of Parrott guns, under command of Colonel
Plummer, twelve miles below to seize Pleasant Point and there blockade the
river. The enemy had now been heavily reinforced from Island Number Ten, having
in all 9,000 infantry, a large addition to its artillery and nine gunboats. The
siege guns reached General Pope on the 12th of March and early on
the morning of the 13th a vigorous bombardment began. The trenches
were steadily extended nearer the town, and by night the army was within easy
musket range. A furious thunder storm broke over the armies at night, and under
cover of the noise and darkness, the Confederate army evacuated the town. The
Tenth Iowa was the first to enter the place and learn that the enemy had fled
in a panic, leaving artillery, tents, ammunition, horses, mules, wagons and
camp supplies for an army of 10,000 men, to fall into the hands of the victors.
The Union army lost but fifty-one men in the siege. General Pope’s army was
immediately sent to support the gunboats of Commodore Foote in an attack upon
Island Number Ten. After a vigorous bombardment of twenty-three days, this
stronghold was also evacuated on the 7th of April. The trophies of
this victory were one hundred and twenty-three pieces o heavy artillery, nearly
7,000 prisoners, 7,000 stands of small arms, several steamboats and wharf boats
filled with stores, 2,000 horses and mules, 1,000 wagons and a vast amount of
ammunition and army stores. The Iowa regiments that took part in this
successful campaign were the Fifth, Tenth, and Second Cavalry. Soon after,
General Halleck absorbed General Pope’s army in his march against Corinth, and
the Tenth Iowa took part in the so-called siege. The Tenth went into camp at
Corinth, where for months it was kept on duty, suffering greatly from sickness.
Week after week through the hot summer the men were kept in idleness, the long
sultry days bringing nothing but drill and sickness to vary the depressing
monotony. Many died and many contracted disease which caused their discharge.
In September the regiment participated with Rosecrans’ army in the bloody
Battle of Iuka, where it repulsed two separate charges of Texas regiments and
won special commendation of the commanding general. In the desperate two day’s
Battle of Corinth which soon followed, the Tenth, under Major McCalla, in
General Sullivan’s Brigade, made a most gallant fight, of which Major McCalla
says in his report:
“During both
days I was assisted in the field by Captain N. A. Holson, acting
lieutenant-colonel; Captain Jackson Orr, acting major; and Lieutenant William
Manning, adjutant; who acted throughout with great coolness and courage and to
whom large credit is due. The line officers without exception deported
themselves with great gallantry, and to the men under my command too much
praise cannot be given for their courage, endurance and strict obedience to
orders.”
The regiment
lost three killed and thirty-seven wounded, among the latter was Captain Albert
Head.
The regiment
was with General Grant in the Oxford campaign and later at Memphis, where it
went into winter quarters. Colonel Purczel had resigned in November, 1862, and
was succeeded by Lieutenant-Colonel Small. Major Bennett had resigned in
November, 1862, and was succeeded by Lieutenant-Colonel Small. Major Bennett
had resigned in January of the same year, and Captain McCalla was promoted to
the vacancy. Dr. Davis resigned in April, and R. J. Mohr was appointed surgeon.
Adjutant Jackson also resigned in April and was succeeded by Lieutenant John
Delahayed. The next active service of the Tenth was under General Quimby
against Fort Pemberton which was bombarded for several days without success.
The regiment soon after joined General Grant’s army at Milliken’s Bend, and was
in the great campaign which captured Vicksburg. In this campaign the Tenth Iowa
bore a conspicuous part, fighting bravely at Raymond on the 12th, at
Jackson on the 14th and at Champion’s Hill on the 16th of
May. General Quimby being ill, his division was under command of General
Crocker, of Iowa, and the Tenth was in a brigade under Colonel Boomer, in
McPherson’s Corps. At Jackson the corps did the largest share of the fighting
and then turned west to cooperate with the main body of Grant’s army, which was
concentrating to meet General Pemberton, marching from Vicksburg to resist
Grant’s progress toward that city. Pemberton had taken a strong position on a
high hill on the plantation of a Mr. Champion. To the right of the road a dense
forest extended some distance down the hill, opening into cultivated fields on
a gentle slope and broad valley. Here Pemberton, with 25,000 men, had posted
his army, commanding the roads by which Grant was advancing. The divisions of
Logan and Crocker were soon in the thickest of the fight, where the heavy
rattle of musketry for an hour and a half had not been surpassed in any battle
of the war. Hovey, who had been holding his ground tenaciously against greatly
superior numbers, was finally forced slowly back, when Crocker and Logan
reinforced him, and were soon in retreat, so vigorously pursued that much of
their artillery and many prisoners were captured. There were many Iowa
regiments in this greatest battle of this campaign, and none fought with
greater bravery than the Tenth. When Crocker came to the aid of Hovey, this
regiment, with the brigade, was thrown into the vortex of as desperate a
struggle as ever was witnessed on the field and helped turn the tide of battle.
But Boomer’s brigade was immolated in the conflict and the loss of the Tenth
was fearful, reaching nearly fifty per cent of its entire number. Among the
killed were Captain Poag and Lieutenants Terry and Brown, while Captains Lusby,
Head, Kuhn and Hobson and Lieutenants Meekin and Gregory were wounded. Soon
after the battle the Tenth was with the army before Vicksburg. It was in the
assault of the 22d, making two gallant charges on the impregnable works.
Colonel Boomer, commanding the brigade, was killed in one of the charges and
Captain Head was severely wounded. After the surrender, the Tenth marched with
Sherman against Johnston and after his retreat again returned to Vicksburg,
remaining for two days for two months garrison duty. Near the close of
September it was transferred to the fifteenth Corps and marched with Sherman to
Chattanooga. General Matthies, of Iowa, had succeeded to the command of the
brigade after the death of the gallant Boomer, and the Tenth took part in the
brilliant battles which Grant fought in and about the city. Here, many of its
best officers and men perished in the storming the defenses and bravely facing
the death–dealing batteries. The soldiers never faltered in the line of duty
and everywhere sustained the high reputation won on many battle-fields.
At Missionary
Ridge the Tenth won high honors. At three o’clock on the 24th of
November, General Sherman moved against Missionary Ridge, where General Bragg
was strongly posted on that range of hills. The Tenth Iowa, with its brigade
and division, marched down through the timber and low bottom land to the
assault. Reaching the first hill on a high range beyond, the enemy was seen
strongly fortified and in force, and against this position the Seventh Division
directed its attack the next day. The Union army had won Lookout Mountain and
on the night of the 24th, held the entire line from the north side
of Lookout Mountain through the Chattanooga Valley to the north end of
Missionary Ridge. General Bragg was now defeated and was fighting to save his
army, artillery and baggage. The point against which the Fifth, Sixth, Tenth
and Seventeenth Iowa regiments were directed on the 25th, covered
Bragg’s line of communication to the rear, and if this hill were lost Bragg’s
defeat would be disastrous. The Tenth, with its brigade, moved at eleven o’clock
to reinforce General Ewing, marching over an open field to low ground covered
with underbrush and advancing to the attack on the hill. The artillery fire was
terrible. Solid shot, shell, grape and canister at short range form forty
pieces of artillery, smote their ranks, mowing down the men by scores. No
troops could stand against it and a retreat was ordered. General Matthies fell
severely wounded; it was next to Champion’s Hill the most terrific artillery
fire the Tenth ever encountered. After the close of the Chattanooga campaign
the regiment went into winter quarters at Huntsville, Alabama, and, during the months
of January and February, 1864, nearly three hundred of the men reenlisted,
converting it into a veteran regiment.
Colonel Small
had left the service in August, 1863, and was succeeded by Lieutenant-Colonel P.
C. Henderson; Major McCalla became lieutenant-colonel and Captain Robert Lusby
was promoted to major. The Tenth was sent with General Thomas in a movement
against Johnston in Tennessee and in April was ordered to Decatur, Alabama. In
June the veterans were granted a furlough, retuning to duty in the latter part
of July, and were stationed along the Chattanooga and Atlantic Railroad, having
headquarters at Kingston, Georgia. The Tenth was next in the expedition under
Generals Steadman and Rousseau against Wheeler, and in the march to the sea,
taking part in the battles around Savannah. In the campaign through the
Carolinas it made a gallant passage of the Salkahatchie River, crossing waist
deep under a heavy fire from the enemy posted behind earthworks and, with
another regiment, dislodging the Confederates. The Tenth was with the advance
upon Columbia, and was warmly engaged at Cox Bridge on the Neuse River in North
Carolina at the opening of the Battle of Bentonsville. It moved with the army
to Goldsboro and Raleigh, and was at the surrender of Johnston’s army of nearly
37,000 men on the 21st day of April, 1865, which event virtually
ended the war.
The Tenth soon
after went to Washington and participated in the grand review of May 24th.
From there it was sent to Louisville, and thence to Little Rock and was not
mustered out until the 15th of August. It numbered at that time
little more than three hundred men and had the following field and staff
officers: Lieutenant-Colonel W. H. Silsby, Adjutant H. S. Bowman, Surgeon R. J.
Mohr, Chaplain W. G. Kephart. The regiment entered the service over nine
hundred strong and had received thereafter about three hundred recruits; so
that during its four years of camp life, hard marches and battles it had lost
from disease, wounds, disability and death as many men as it took into the
service. Such are the ravages of war. The flag of the Tenth Iowa Volunteers,
deposited in the capitol of the State, is entitled to have inscribed upon its
war-worn folds the names of Charleston, New Madrid, Island Number Ten,
Farmington, Iuka, Corinth, Raymond, Jackson, Champion’s Hill, Vicksburg,
Missionary Ridge, Decatur, Salkahatchie, Columbia, and Bentonsville.