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Chapter XI
Fifth Iowa Infantry
Picture included in this chapter is of the
Battle of Iuka.
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.
The Battle of Iuka
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.
Sixth Iowa Infantry
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.
The Siege and Battles of
Jackson
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. |
