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Chapter XXIV
The Thirty-first Iowa Infantry
Pictures included in this chapter are: Colonel
John Scott and Battle Field of Pleasant Hill
Of the companies making up this
regiment, A. was raised in Linn County, B, C, and D in Black Hawk
County, E and F in Jackson, G in Cedar and Jones, H in Jones County
and I and K in Jackson County. William Smyth of Linn County was
commissioned colonel; J. W. Jenkins, lieutenant-colonel; Ezekiel
Cutler, major; and E. C. Blackman, adjutant. The companies went into
camp at Davenport in the early part of September, 1862, and were
mustered into service on the 13th of October, numbering
nine hundred seventy men. Early in November the regiment was ordered
south and reached Helena on the 20th, where it went into
camp. It was sent with the Hovey expedition to Coldwater River,
Mississippi, and two weeks later joined Sherman’s army in the
Vicksburg campaign. It fought with Hovey’s Brigade in the Battle at
Chickasaw Bayou, but was not in the disastrous assault which closed
the engagement. Colonel Smyth was not a military man and the
thorough drilling of his regiment had been neglected, which for a
time detracted somewhat from its efficiency in the early months of
service. The Thirty-first was in the expedition against Arkansas
Post and took part in the severe battle which resulted in its
capture on the 11th of January, 1863.
The general history of the
Thirty-first regiment from this time to the close of Grant’s
campaign against Vicksburg is similar to that of the Fourth, Ninth,
Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth and Thirtieth regiments already given. In
brief, it was in the Greenville expedition, in the battle at Raymond
on the 12th of May, marched with that part of the army
which captured Jackson and from there joined Grant’s army before
Vicksburg, took part in the bloody assault of May 22d and bore its
part in the labors and perils of the siege which followed, until the
surrender. It did its duty nobly all through the severe campaign and
met with heavy losses. Lieutenant-Colonel Jenkins was among the
wounded. Joining the column sent against Jackson the second time, on
the 27th of July, it went into camp on the Big Black
River. Toward the last of September the regiment moved with
Osterhaus’ Division to enter the campaign against Chattanooga. It
was engaged in the battles of lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge and
Ringgold, after which the Union army went into winter quarters—the
Thirty-first regiment at Woodville, Alabama. On the 1st
of May it marched to northern Georgia and joined the grand army
collected by General Sherman for his famous conquest of the
southeastern States. This army now consisted of nearly 70,000 men
under General Thomas known as the Army of the Cumberland; the Army
of the Tennessee under General McPherson 24,000 strong; the Army of
the Ohio numbering 13,000 under command of General Schofield; making
a total of more than 100,000 men with two hundred fifty-four pieces
of artillery. Against this magnificent array of western soldiers,
led by some of the most brilliant officers in the service, the
Southern Confederacy was only able to gather an army of about 50,000
men which consisted of the corps of Hood, Hardee and Polk and 4,000
cavalry under Wheeler, all under the command of General Joseph E.
Johnston, one of the ablest officers in the service. The disparity
in numbers was too great for hope of being able to successfully
resist the onward march of Sherman through the South.
The
Battle of Resaca
Johnston took a position at Dallas behind a lofty spur of the
Alleghanies called Rocky Faced Ridge, through which runs a railway
following a gap made by Mill Creek, which winds along the opening
here called Buzzard’s Roost Gap. On the 7th of May the
Army of the Cumberland took a position opposite the Gap on Tunnel
Hill and two days later General Schofield moved down from the north
close to Dalton. Demonstrations were made by Hooker had Howard and
an engagement of some magnitude took place. General McPherson
occupied a strong position I the mountains at Snake Gap. Leaving
Howard’s Corps to watch the enemy in front of Buzzard’s Roost,
General Sherman sent Hooker and Palmer with the Twentieth and
Fourteenth Corps to Snake Gap where Schofield was directed to join
them. On the 12th Sherman’s entire army with the
exception of Howard’s Corps moved form the Gap into a more level
country and marched in battle array toward Resaca, where General
Johnston was found strongly intrenched on a line extending from the
Oostanaula above, to the river below the town. Hood’s Corps held the
right of his position, Hardee the center and Polk the left.
McPherson was on the right wing of the Union army, Thomas, the
center, and Schofield, the left. The battle opened on the morning of
the 14th. Palmer with his Fourteen Corps on the left
center made a powerful attack trying to force the enemy from his
strong position. Schofield, with the divisions of Newton and Cox,
made a vigorous advance further on the left, driving the
Confederates from the works. Still further to the left Schofield in
person led an attack supported by Howard who had followed the enemy
from Dalton. They were repulsed with heavy loss at this point,
retreating in confusion. But Hooker came to their aid and drove the
Confederates back. Logan’s Fifteenth Corps on the right now made a
successful charge and, crossing Camp Creek, drove the enemy from the
rifle pits and gained a commanding position from which he opened an
enfilading fire. A furious charge was made to drive him from his
position but it was defeated with great slaughter. This ended the
first day’s battle.
On the morning of the 15th
Hooker made a fierce assault on the enemy’s right and carried two
important positions from which he couldn’t to be dislodged. The
battle now became general all along the line. The steady roar of
artillery and the incessant rattle of musketry told the desperate
nature of the conflict. General E. W. Rice of Iowa, commanding a
brigade in General Dodge’s Sixteenth Corps, crossed the Oostanaula
below Resaca and making a fierce attack turned the enemy’s position
at that point. During the night of the 15th the Confederate army
retreated. The loss of the Union army in these engagements was about
eight hundred killed and 4,000 wounded. In addition to the heavy
loss of the enemy in killed and wounded 1,000 prisoners and eight
guns were captured by General Hooker. The Iowa regiments did not
suffer severely with the exception of the Seventh which had a sharp
engagement at Lay’s Ferry. Lieutenant-Colonel Jenkins was again
severely wounded.
On the 28th the Battle
of Dallas was fought. Here McPherson was attacked and at one time
his lines were broken. But Williamson’s Iowa Brigade came to the
rescue and in a brilliant charge drove the enemy from the field. All
through this campaign the Thirty-first Iowa bravely did its part. At
Big Shanty and at Kenesaw it was engaged with the enemy, and again
at Nickajack Creek. It moved with the army in the flanking movement
to Jonesboro and participated in the numerous engagements which
resulted in the fall of Atlanta. It joined in the march to the sea
in November. On the 15th of December, 1864, Colonel Smyth
resigned and the command of the regiment devolved upon
Lieutenant-Colonel Jenkins. In January the regiment moved with the
army northward through the Carolinas and participated in the capture
of Columbia and the Battle of Bentonsville. In May it reached
Washington and was in the grand review of the 24th. The
active service of the regiment was ended but it was not mustered out
until June 27th, being at that time stationed at
Louisville, Kentucky. Upon its arrival at Davenport thousands of
citizens assembled and gave it a most cordial welcome. James T. Lane
on behalf of the city in an eloquent address expressed the gratitude
of the people at home over the return of the war-worn veterans and
Colonel Jenkins responded on behalf of the regiment. As the remnants
of the various companies returned to their respective homes the
gladness of families and friends was tempered with sorrow of the
bereaved ones for the brave boys who slept in unmarked graves from
Helena to Bentonsville. Of the nine hundred seventy men who, less
than three years before had proudly marched away in their country’s
service, but three hundred seventy were now in the ranks of the
returning veterans.
The Thirty-second Iowa Infantry
This regiment was raised in the
late summer and early fall of 1862. Company A was recruited in the
counties of Hamilton, Wright, Hardin and Kossuth, B in Cerro Gordo,
Winnebago and Hancock, C in Black Hawk, D in Boone, E in Butler and
Black Hawk, F in Hardin and Grundy, G. in Butler and Floyd, H in
Franklin and Butler, I in Webster and Humboldt, K in Marshall and
Story. The regiment went into camp at Dubuque and was organized with
John Scott of Story County, colonel; E. H. Mix of Butler,
lieutenant-colonel; G. A. Eberhart of Black Hawk, major; and Charles
Aldrich of Hamilton, adjutant. The measles in a malignant form broke
out in camp and there was much suffering. The regiment numbered nine
hundred twenty men when ordered to St. Louis, reaching Benton
Barracks on the 21st of November. Six Companies under
Colonel Scott were sent by order of General Curtis to New Madrid and
the other four companies to Cape Girardeau under command of Major
Eberhart. The separation of the regiment continued until the spring
of 1864 and caused much annoyance, besides being very distasteful to
the officers and men. The companies under Major Eberhart were A,
commanded by Captain L. H. Cutler; D, Captain Thomas De Tarr; F,
Captain Joseph Edgington, and G, Captain C. A. L. Roszell. They,
with a company of Missouri heavy artillery, made up the garrison of
Cape Girardeau until the spring of 1863. On the 10th of
March the garrison was reinforced by the First Nebraska Volunteers
and soon after Major Eberhart marched his detachment with a regiment
of Wisconsin cavalry and a battery of Missouri artillery to
Bloomfield, where it remained until the 21st of April.
The Confederate General Marmaduke was now threatening Cape
Girardeau. General McNeil, commanding the Union forces in the
vicinity, marched at once to threatened town and called in the
scattered detachments. The companies under Major Eberhart guarding a
train at Dallas marched twenty miles to Jackson in less than six
hours, reaching Cape Girardeau on the morning of the 24th.
The nest day General Marmaduke with his army 8,000 strong invested
the place. At ten o’clock that night he sent an officer with a flag
of truce demanding unconditional surrender. General McNeil declined
and prepared for a vigorous defense. The attack began at ten o’clock
on Sunday morning. An artillery duel ensued lasting until two
o’clock, when the Confederates withdrew with considerable loss just
as General Vandever cam down the river with reinforcements of
McNeil. Major Eberhart occupied a position on the right supporting a
battery and lost but one man captured. General McNeil pursued the
Confederate army some distance. Major Eberhart’s command remained at
Cape Girardeau until the 11th of July, then marched to
Bloomfield, where it was attached to the reserve brigade of a
cavalry division of the Department of Missouri and began the
campaign which ended with the capture of Little Rock.
On the 13th our
detachment was sent on three gunboats up the White River. It
ascended the Little Red River to the town of Searcy, there
destroying a pontoon bridge and capturing two steamers. On the
return little fleet was attacked by three hundred Confederates who
directed their principal fire on the prize “Kaskaskia,” which was
manned by half of Company D, under command of Lieutenant W. D.
Templin. The crew made a gallant defense driving the assailants off
with heavy loss.
A large quantity of public property
was destroyed and some prisoners captured by this expedition. At a
heavy skirmish at Bayou Metou on the 27th the detachment
of the Thirty-second Iowa lost one killed and two wounded. Returning
to Duvall’s Bluff it had charge for a time of more than 1,200 sick
soldiers and on the 10th and 11th of September
moved on to Little Rock, having the care of more than a regiment of
sick and wounded. Remaining there until the last of January, 1864,
it was sent to Memphis and from there taken down the river and
attached to the Division of General A. J. Smith. On the 27th
of February it marched out to Black River to await the return of the
army operating in the interior.
Returning now to that portion of
the regiment under the command of Colonel Scott, which had been sent
to New Madrid, we find that it was kept here to garrison the post
and prevent contraband trade with Arkansas. On the 17th
of December, 1862, Colonel Scott sent out a party of one hundred men
under Captain Peebles as far as St. Francis River which gathered up
valuable public property and brought in several prisoners. On the 28th
of December upon order of Brigadier-General Thomas A. Davies,
Colonel Scott spiked the siege guns, destroyed the other public
property and evacuated the post at New Madrid. He was very reluctant
to execute the order as he felt confident of his ability to hold the
place against any force likely to be sent against it. But the order
was peremptory and General Fisk whom he consulted, assured Colonel
Scott that Davies had authority from General Curtis who had command
of the Department. Under these circumstances Scott obeyed the order
and moved the garrison to Fort Pillow. General Carr preferred
charges against Colonel Scott and a special commission was convened
to investigate the facts in the premises. On the 26th of
February, 1863, the commission made a report fully exonerating
Colonel Scott from all blame or censure for his action in the affair
and decided that he did right in obeying the order of General
Davies. The command remained at Fort Pillow for nearly six months
doing garrison duty and going on scouting expeditions into the
interior. On the 17th and 18th of June the
regiment embarked in detachments for Columbus, Kentucky, where it
remained for about seven months, Colonel Scott being in command of
the post most of the time. Union City, Tennessee, was taken by the
enemy on the 10th of July and our command hastened to its
relief, but the Confederates made a rapid retreat and were not
overtaken.
The regiment was again divided into
detachments which were scattered about in various places. In the
month of January, 1864, six companies were again brought together
and embarked for Vicksburg, where they were assigned to the Second
Brigade of General A. J. Smith’s Division. They were in an
expedition sent to destroy railroads and public property belonging
to the Confederates and were engaged in several skirmishes. Captain
Peebles, while in command of a foraging party of twenty-five men
belonging to Company C, was attacked by three hundred mounted
Confederates and lost eight out of twenty-one wagons and one man
killed. Upon returning to Vicksburg the regiment was greatly
rejoiced to find Major Eberhart with the four companies, so long
absent on detached service, and for the first time since November,
1862, the whole command was together. Colonel Scott issued a special
order in which he warmly congratulated the regiment upon its reunion
after long separation and the gallant services rendered by all. He
closed with an eloquent tribute to those who had met death on the
march, in battle or hospitals. Soon after came the order
transferring the command to the Department of the Gulf under command
of Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks of Massachusetts. General Banks
had been a prominent politician, a member of Congress, Speaker of
the House and Governor of the State, a Whig and later a Republican.
He was an ambitious man and had many admirers who hoped some day to
see him President. He was favorite with many influential politicians
and when the war began was one of the many civilians who was
promoted to high rank in the army while experienced soldiers,
educated in military affairs, had to slowly win their way to
commands by merit on the field of battle. This eminent politician
was the man who organized and led the Red River Expedition to
disastrous and disgraceful defeat.
With a fine army of experienced
veteran soldiers led mostly by able, brave and accomplished
officers, the commander came near sacrificing the entire army. The
splendid fighting of the western soldiers under their trusted and
heroic leaders, alone saved the expedition from a greater disaster
than any that befell a Union army during the war. It has already
been related how, on the 9th of April while the narrow
roadway leading to the front, where the confederate army was lying,
was obstructed by a long wagon train, our advance regiments were
attacked and cut to pieces at Sabine Cross Roads. Reenforcements
were sent, a division at a time and shared the same fate, until more
than 2,000 men had been sacrificed, artillery and wagon trains
captured and the whole army in wild retreat.
The
Battle of Pleasant Hill
Fifteen miles from the field of carnage the army halted; General A.
J. Smith had come up with his fresh troops and General Banks decided
to make a stand. A line was formed consisting of the First Brigade
of the 19th Corps on the right; Second Brigade in the
center, supported by Shaw’s Brigade in which was the Thirty-second
Iowa; Third Brigade on the left. There was skirmishing during the
morning but the heavy fighting did not begin until near four o’clock
when a tremendous cannonade opened upon our lines, followed soon
after by a cavalry charge. Senator W. V. Allen of Nebraska, then a
private in Company G, gives the following graphic account of what
followed:
“The cloud of smoke from our
guns hung for a moment in the breeze, then rose, revealing to us the
sickening sight of riders and horses lying in a promiscuous heap of
dead and dying. Their warm life-blood was forming little pools,
which uniting, ran away in streams, while the pitiful neighing of
dying horses, and the sorrowful cries and appeals of the dying
soldiers for help and water was a sight to make the soul sick. While
we were contemplating this horrible picture there debouched from the
opposite woods three strong lines of infantry, the division of
Churchill, Parsons and Majors, with wings spread out like a great
fan. Their bayonets were fixed ready for use an they carried their
guns at right shoulder shift. It was our time to turn pale. There
were two of them to one of us, three strong lines to our single
line. They broke forth in the ‘Rebel yell,’ which was simply a cheer
from fine voiced men, a high piercing noise like the call of a woman
made at long distance. It differed from the cheer of our men, which
was heavier, heartier and more uniform. They brushed aside our
skirmishers and dropped their guns to the position of a charge. They
were to fall upon and crush in our center by the fury of their
assault and the machine strength of numbers, while other portions of
their army were to envelope, overlap and crush our flanks, and thus
rout if not capture our entire army. Their success the previous day
had made this, to their minds, not an impossible feat. Banks, always
fruitful in blunders, had sent back to Grand Ecore a large part of
the Thirteenth Corps and all our cavalry except one brigade, which
being roughly handled early in the fight was unfit for offensive
service when needed; so that when the enemy struck us in full force
with his assaulting columns, we were weakened fully by this
reduction of our numbers. We were ordered to shield ourselves as
best we could from the enemy’s fire, and reserve our own, until he
approached within a few rods of us. The chivalrous Shaw was at his
best. His usually dull eye kindled with an unnatural fire, and his
unusually homely countenance grew almost beautiful in contemplation
of the death struggle that was at hand. He rode along the line
giving his orders as coolly as if on dress parade. ‘Aim low, boys;
it is better to wound than to kill, for it will take two good men to
carry a wounded man from the field,’ he said. Above the din of the
gathering storm, again rang out the voice of Shaw as the Rebels
approached us. ‘Fix bayonets,’ he said, and in an instant every
man’s bayonet was ready for use. The Rebels were upon us. The noise
of 1,600 Springfield rifles rang out in unison as 1,600 minie balls
sped into the enemy’s ranks to do their deadly work. He was strong
and stopped, but rallied and again renewed the assault with
additional fury. Another volley thrown full and fair into his ranks
caused the enemy to reel and stagger like a drunken man, but he
rallied to renew the attack. The assault was repeated and another
made, this time along parts of the line the bayonet was used; but
each assault was repulsed with great loss of life and limb on both
sides. So the fighting went on, on other parts of the field. Our
right wing was crushed in and driven back to the reserves, and this
made it necessary to retire Shaw’s Brigade a distance to keep a
connected line. The order was given, and the Twenty-fourth Missouri,
Fourteenth and Twenty-seventh Iowa drew back, but Adjutant Charlie
Huntley, brave as a lion and mild as a woman, while bringing the
order to the Thirty-second was killed, and the order never reached
the regiment. Having previously orders to hold the position at all
hazards there was but one thing for Colonel Scott to do, and that
was to hold his position unless wrenched from him by the enemy. The
regiment at our left had been withdrawn, leaving both flanks of ours
exposed. For more than an hour this regiment alone was fighting ten
times its number. Everywhere in front, on the flanks and in the rear
the contest raged with great fury and loss of life. Nowhere in
ancient or modern warfare can be found an instance of more heroism
than was here exhibited. Up to this time the enemy had been the
assailant, but now that he was weakened, the time came for us to
take the offensive. General Smith had made all preparations to
receive the advancing foe; and as the human tide came rolling up the
hill, almost to the muzzle of his guns, a sheet of flame flashed
along his lines and swept the front like the besom of destruction.
Hundreds fell dead and dying before that awful fire. Scarcely had
the seething lead left the guns when the word ‘charge’ was given and
7,000 men precipitated themselves upon the shattered ranks of the
enemy. Emory’s division was pushed forward and joined the Sixteenth
Corps, driving the Rebels rapidly down the hill to the woods, there
they broke and fled in confusion. The victory was won, and our
troops followed the enemy until night put an end to the pursuit.”
Then was repeated the stupid
blunder perpetrated by McClellan after the Battle of Malvern Hill. A
sweeping victory had been won by his subordinate officers and superb
soldiers and the only demoralized man in the army was the
commander-in-chief, who ordered a retreat. So it was with Banks at
Pleasant Hill, after his army by unsurpassed valor had redeemed the
disastrous rout and slaughter of the day before by a hard won
victory, he ordered a retreat, abandoning his wounded officers and
men and leaving the dead unburied. The Confederate army fled in one
direction while Banks hurried his army away in the opposite
direction. When General Dick Taylor learned the next day of Banks’
flight he faced his beaten army about, returned to the battle-field,
took our wounded men prisoners and claimed a victory. But what of
the heroic Thirty-second on that fateful day? When its supporting
regiments were withdrawn and no order came to Scott to retire, there
was but one thing to do—fight to the end. Lieutenant-Colonel Mix and
Captain A. B. Miller holding the right of the regiment, fell
mortally wounded and three companies gave way before over-whelming
numbers. The lines now faced in three directions while a destructive
fire was rapidly thinning the ranks. Captains Peebles and Ackerman,
Lieutenants Devine and Howard had fallen dangerously wounded. The
sun had gone down and the enemy had passed on to the rear. Colonel
Scott was now able to move his regiment to the left, where it joined
our most advanced troops. The loss of the regiment was two hundred
ten men out of four hundred twenty, or one-half of the entire number
that had answered to the roll call in the morning. It was a larger
per cent. than that suffered by the famous “Light Brigade” in its
charge at Balaklava. General Banks in his official report of the
battle did not even mention Shaw’s Brigade, which by its heroic
fighting and fearful sacrifice, saved the army from utter rout.
Neither did he mention an Iowa regiment. But he did a few months
later secure the dismissal from the service of the gallant and
fearless Colonel Shaw for daring to tell the truth about some of the
drunken and cowardly officers high in command at Pleasant Hill. But
impartial history rights many wrongs.
Greeley’s “American Conflict” says:
“Shaw’s Brigade moved forward
and took its position in front, and the brunt of the fighting fell
on this gallant brigade. It could hardly have found one more able
and willing to meet it.”
The brigade lost five
hundred men, more by far than any other in the battle. It covered
the retreat to Grand Ecore. In the retreat from Alexandria the
Thirty-second regiment had several engagements with the enemy.
Colonel Scott resigned on the 27th of May, 1864, and was
succeeded by Colonel Eberhart. From June to November the regiment
was in various expeditions in Tennessee and Missouri and later moved
to Nashville and joined the army of General Thomas. It took part in
the great battle of December 15th and 16th and
captured a battery of five guns and many prisoners, losing
twenty-five men. Its next important service was in the campaign
against Mobile early in 1865; in which additional honors were won
for duty faithfully performed upon all occasions. It remained in
Alabama several months after the fall of Mobile and was mustered out
of the service at Clinton, Iowa, on the 24th of August.
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