|
Chapter XXV
The Thirty-third Iowa Infantry
Pictures included in this chapter are: General G. W. Clark, General
John Edwards,
General S. L. Glasgow, Colonel J. A. Garrett
Samuel
A. Rice, formerly Attorney-General of Iowa, was largely instrumental
in securing the enlistment of the men who formed the Thirty-third
regiment. Companies A, G and I were raised in Marion County, B, F
and H in Keokuk County, and C, D, E and K in Mahaska County. The
regiment was organized in August, 1862, and went into camp at
Oskaloosa, numbering nine hundred eighty men. Samuel A. Rice was
commissioned colonel; Cyrus H. Mackay, lieutenant-colonel; Hiram D.
Gibson, major, and F. F. Burlock, adjutant. On the 20th
of November the regiment started south, stopping at St. Louis, where
it remained until December 21 when sent to Columbus, Kentucky. On
the 1st of January, 1863, the Thirty-third was sent to
assist in defending Union City which was threatened, but no attack
was made and it returned to Columbus. On the 8th the
command went down the river to Helena, Arkansas, where it suffered
the misery of that unhealthful camp until February 9, when joining
the expedition to the Yazoo Pass, for two weeks it assisted in
clearing the channel, then went with the army to Fort Pemberton.
Upon the return to Helena, Colonel Rice on the 11th of
June, was placed in charge of a brigade composed of the
Twenty-ninth, Thirty-third, Thirty-sixth Iowa regiments and the
Thirty-third Missouri and never after returned to his regiment,
which was led by Lieutenant-Colonel Mackay from that time.
The Battle of Helena
Lieutenant-General Homes had succeeded in assembling a Confederate
army over 15,000 strong for the purpose of capturing Helena. Under
his command were the troops of Price, Marmaduke, Parsons and Shelby.
Helena is situated on low level ground and on the west is a ridge of
hills a quarter of a mile distant broken by deep ravines into
numerous elevations. The valleys open toward the town and all of
these approaches were commanded by guns of Fort Curtis. But beyond
the fort was still higher ground upon which were four batteries of
light artillery, each on a commanding elevation from which the guns
could sweep in all directions and connected by rifle pits for
infantry. The low ground on both flanks of this line of
fortifications was protected by rifle pits and batteries of
ten-pound Parrotts and six and twelve-pound brass cannon. The public
roads leading into the town had been obstructed by fallen trees. The
effective force of the garrison was aroused at two o’clock on the 4th
of July, 1863, by the approach of the Confederate army and the
various commands were assigned to positions. The battle was opened
by artillery upon both flanks of our army at about half-past four
and both wings were soon engaged. It soon became evident that the
plan of the Confederate commander was to concentrate his main
assault on the center of the Union defenses, break through the line,
then taking the two wings in turn throw them into confusion. Holmes
and Price directed the attacks upon batteries D and C
simultaneously, but were met with a fire which hurled them back with
broken ranks. These were reformed, heavily reinforced and again
pressed forward for the assault. Again they were repulsed with heavy
loss and sought shelter in the ravines and among the fallen trees. A
dense fog now settled over the field and for an hour the conflict
was suspended. As the mist cleared away, three regiments were seen
advancing upon battery C, the bayonets glistening in the sunlight as
they moved over the low ridges. The artillery opened upon them doing
great execution but not checking their progress; on they came with
the fierce “Rebel yet” and captured the battery. The artillerymen
and infantry fell back in some confusion but rallied at the foot of
the hill and acted as sharpshooters to protect the gunners of the
principal work, Fort Curtis. Against this fort now came the exultant
enemy, shouting and cheering, confident of victory. Five twenty-four
pounder siege guns and one thirty-two pounder columbiad now opened
upon the black mass of men as it swept up the hill. The broadside of
the gunboat “Tyler” sent a storm of bursting shells into the moving
column. The vast surging crowd was riddled and torn with the
unceasing shower of death-dealing missiles. At last horror-stricken
with the sight of heads, limbs and mangled bodies left, torn and
bleeding on every side by the storm of iron, the Confederates turned
and fled. In front the officers attempted to rally the men but th4e
roar of cannon and the deadly fire of our sharpshooters made it
impossible. Our infantry and dismounted cavalry now swept over the
hills driving the enemy and capturing many prisoners. At eleven
o’clock the battle was won and the Confederate army in full retreat
toward Little Rock. This brilliant defense of Helena under the
direction of General Salomon of Wisconsin, was overshadowed by the
great victories of Vicksburg and Gettysburg coming at the same time
and did not receive the attention it deserved. The Iowa troops who
fought here were the Third Battery, Captain Hayden; Twenty-ninth
Regiment, Colonel Benton; Thirty-third, Colonel Mackay;
Thirty-sixth, Colonel Kittridge; Colonel Rice commanded a brigade.
No regiment did better service during the engagement than the
Thirty-third. It had the most exposed position and suffered the
greatest loss of any in the battle. The next service in the field
was with the expedition against Little Rock, where after the capture
of the city, the regiment remained until March, 1864. It was in the
campaign against Camden, sharing in its hardships and battles, in
Rice’s Brigade. As an account of this fruitless and disastrous
expedition has been given in another place it is not necessary to
follow our regiment through the long march, though it may be said
that it never shirked a duty and in all respects did honor to the
State it represented. At the Battle of Jenkins’ Ferry where the
beloved brigade commander received his fatal wound, the soldiers of
his old regiment fought bravely, winning new honors. The loss in
killed, wounded and missing was one hundred twenty nine. Among the
severely wounded was Colonel Mackay who was obliged to relinquish
the command to Captain Bydston. Captain P. T. Totten and Lieutenant
T. R. Connor were mortally wounded and Captain Comstock, Lieutenant
De Garmo and Kindig were severely injured. Major Gibson resigned on
the 22d of April while at Camden and, returning with the command
which was defeated at Mark’s Mills, was there captured and suffered
great hardships in captivity.
During the retreat of the army to
Little Rock the Thirty-third suffered severely. It remained there
during the summer under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel John
Loffland who was on the 18th of August, 1863, promoted
from captain of Company D. In February, 1865, it left Little Rock
and was transferred to the Department of the Gulf and participated
in that last brilliant campaign which closed with the capture of
Mobile. From there it was sent to New Orleans, and there on the 17th
of July, 1865, was mustered out of the service. Through the fortunes
of war it did far more than its share of irksome garrison duty, so
distasteful to young and active soldiers, and was deprived of
participation in many brilliant campaigns and glorious victories,
which fell to the lot of other Iowa regiments. But in almost three
years of faithful service it made a record that reflects honor upon
the State which sent it into the field; and left hundreds of its
brave men in Southern graves.
The Thirty-fourth Iowa Infantry
This regiment was raised in August, 1862,
in response to the call of the President for volunteers, issued July
2 of that year, immediately after the disastrous defeat of
McClellan’s army in the Richmond campaign. A long and terrible civil
war was now seen to be inevitable and 300,000 more soldiers must
reinforce our defeated armies in the field. It was the supreme test
of patriotism and nobly did the loyal citizens respond. This Iowa
regiment was full and in camp I less than sixty days from the date
of the President’s proclamation. Companies A and I were from Decatur
County, Companies B, C, D and H, from Warren, Companies E, G and K,
from Lucas, Clark and Marion and Company F from Wayne County. They
went into camp at Burlington numbering nine hundred fifty-three men,
where the regiment was organized in September by the appointment of
George W. Clark of Warren County, colonel; W. S. Dungan of Lucas,
lieutenant-colonel; R. D. Kellogg of Decatur, major; and W. W.
Bryant of Warren, adjutant. While at Camp Lauman the measles broke
out among the men and not less than six hundred of them were
afflicted with the disease. On the 22d of November the regiment
embarked on a steamer and going down the Mississippi arrived at that
desolate and unhealthy rendezvous Helena, Arkansas. Soon after
landing the smallpox appeared and before it was subdued several men
died. The regiment was assigned to Thayer’s Brigade of Steele’s
Division and joined General Sherman’s army which was about to enter
upon the Vicksburg campaign. In that expedition the Thirty-fourth
bore its full share. The bloody repulse at Chickasaw Bluff proved
that Vicksburg was far too strong to be taken by assault and further
operations against it were abandoned. The hardships of the campaign
and the great amount of sickness that afflicted the regiment had
sadly thinned the ranks by death and discharge for and cast a shadow
over the spirits of the survivors. These were among the darkest days
of its history when the grave was closing over the forms of so many
comrades who left their homes in robust health but a few months
before. They were realizing that the terrible ravages of war were
not confined to battle-fields and loathsome prisons. But the gloom
soon gave way to the excitement of the coming conflict. General
McClernand was marshaling his army for the capture of Arkansas Post
and this regiment was among those who took an active part in the
operations which brought a brilliant victory. Soon after the
Thirty-fourth was sent on an expedition attended with great
suffering. Colonel Clark was ordered with his own regiment and five
companies of the One Hundred and Thirteenth Illinois, to guard and
convey to Chicago 5,000 prisoners taken in the recent battles. But
three poorly equipped steamboats were provided and into them were
crowded 6,500 human beings. Ingersoll says of this trip:
“Fuel
had to be collected along the river as it could be found. The voyage
from Arkansas Post to St. Louis occupied two weeks, every moment of
which was miserable beyond expression to every man on the more than
crowded boats. As if to bring our devoted command to the very depth
of misery, smallpox in its most loathsome form attacked the
prisoners. When the little fleet at last reached St. Louis the men
had suffered all the horrors of the ‘middle passage.’”
General
McClernand, responsible for crowding men worse than a humane man
would crowd cattle on a voyage to the shambles, was scarcely less
blameworthy than those who tortured our prisoners at Andersonville.
Colonel Clark, who had seen suffering on many battlefields, declared
that the human suffering during this trip exceeded anything he had
ever witnessed. Leaving his sick at St. Louis, Colonel Clark
proceeded by rail with the prisoners to Chicago. When his command
returned to Benton Barracks, it was utterly prostrated. Colonel
Clark said “We were the most sickly, depressed and melancholy set of
soldiers I ever saw. During the following month the mortality in the
regiment was frightful.” Many were discharge for disability and the
regiment was but a wreck of its original strength. During the stay
at St. Louis Captain Gardner, Lieutenants Dilley and Rockwell, with
seventy men, escorted several hundred prisoners to City Point,
Virginia. At this time the number of men fit for duty in the
regiment did not exceed three hundred out of nine hundred fifty
three—its original strength. Late in April the Thirty-fourth was
moved to Pilot Knob, where Colonel Clark took command of the post
and Lieutenant-Colonel Dungan commanded the regiment. Here in a
healthful and pleasant camp, the sick began to recover and it was
not long before the number fit for duty reached four hundred. On the
3d of June the regiment was ordered to embark to join General
Grant’s army then besieging Vicksburg. It was placed on the extreme
left of the line of investment and remained on duty until the
surrender of the Confederate army. Its loss during the siege was
four killed and six wounded. In July the Thirty-fourth accompanied
General Herron’s Division on an expedition to Yazoo City—fifty miles
from the mouth of the river. On the morning of the 16th
General Herron began a march across the country in the direction of
Canton to protect the rear and flank of General Sherman’s army then
besieging Jackson. He crossed the Big Black River at Moore’s Ferry
and found that General Johnston had evacuated the city the night
previous. Herron returned to Vicksburg on the 21st,
having captured during his absence three hundred prisoners, six
pieces of heavy artillery, 1,000 horses and mules, 2,000 bales of
cotton and one steamer, while causing the destruction of five
others. The heat was intense on the march and many soldiers of the
Thirty-fourth were prostrated by sun-stroke. The next movement was
down the Mississippi to Port Hudson, where the regiment remained
three weeks, from there proceeding to the beautiful and healthful
encampment among the grand live-oaks of Carrollton, just above New
Orleans, where the Thirteenth Corps was waiting. While here the army
was reviewed by Generals Grant and Banks. On the 7th of
September the regiment was sent to Morganza, a small town above Port
Hudson, where it remained a month. At the engagement near Sterling
Farm on the 29th of September, which resulted in the
defeat and capture of the Nineteenth Iowa, the Twenty-sixth Indiana
and other troops under Lieutenant-Colonel Leake, the Thirty-fourth
lost Lieutenant Walton, five men captured and one mortally wounded.
On the 25th of October the regiment embarked with the
army for Brazos Santiago, Texas, and after moving form place to
place finally joined General Washburn’s expedition against Fort
Esperanza. The fort was attacked on the last day of November and,
after several hours’ defense, the enemy at night spiked the guns,
blew up the magazine and escaped. The regiment remained in that
vicinity for nearly five months. On the 20th of April,
1864, the army embarked for new Orleans and was at once sent to
reinforce General Banks at Alexandria. It joined in the retreat and
was in camp at Baton Rouge for six weeks. In July orders came to
Colonel Clark directing him to join the army ordered to Virginia.
But when the regiment reached Algiers its destination was changed
and it joined General Granger’s expedition against the forts at
Mobile Bay. There were three forts protecting the city of mobile
from attack by our naval fleet under Admiral Farragut. Fort Gaines
on the east end of Dauphin Island, Fort Morgan three miles east of
Gaines on the western extremity of Mobile Point, a peninsula from
the main land of Alabama. These two forts completely commanded the
channel through which ships must pass to enter the bay and reach the
city. The channel west of Dauphin Island could only be used for
vessels of light draft and this was commanded by Fort Powell.
Capture of Forts Gaines and Morgan
Admiral
Farragut, with a fleet of fourteen wooden vessels and four iron
clads, on the morning of August 5th, ran by the forts
into Mobile Bay and attacking the Confederate fleet, soon vanquished
the ram “Tennessee,” captured the gunboat “Selma,” drove the
“Gaines” ashore and drove the “Morgan” into shallow water where it
could not be followed. In the meantime the land forces under Granger
were steadily pushing their earthworks within short range of Fort
Gaines, which on the morning of the 8th was forced to
surrender. The Union army now moved from Dauphin Island and formed
across the peninsula three miles in the rear of Fort Morgan. This
fort had been constructed under the direction of the best engineers
in the army, was exceedingly strong, and mounted forty-six guns.
General Page, its commander, had boasted that he could hold out six
months against any force that could be brought against it. Fort
Powell had been destroyed but Fort Morgan proved to be so formidable
that General Granger was obliged to send to New Orleans for heavier
artillery and begin a regular siege. On the 20th of
August he had thirty-four heavy guns in position and all
preparations completed for bombardment. The army gradually
approached the fort until within five hundred yards of the works and
on the morning of the 22d at daylight opened fire. The squadron
three miles out in the Gulf threw solid shot and shell with great
accuracy. The fire from the ships and monitors and the captured ram
“Tennessee” within the bay was constant and terrible, while the
mortars and heavy guns on land poured in a steady storm of missiles.
Solid shot went crashing through earth and masonry, followed by
shell bursting open and tearing wide the fractures they had made;
the terrible work continued all day with unabated fury. At night the
fleet retired but the army kept up a continuous fire. About ten
o’clock flames burst from the citadel which had been fired by our
shells. At midnight on the 23d a signal of surrender appeared on
the fort and the firing at once ceased. Negotiations were opened
with the commander of the fort and at two o’clock in the afternoon
the formal surrender took place, in the presence of the
Thirty-fourth Iowa. This regiment under Colonel Clark marched up to
the front of the fort, the band playing “Hail Columbia,” formed in
line of battle, as the Confederates marched out, stacked arms, the
officers surrendering their swords. The Confederate flag was hauled
down and the Stars and Stripes run up. It was just three weeks from
the time the army had first landed on Dauphin Island that the fort
surrendered. In that time it had with the aid of the navy captured
three forts, nearly a hundred heavy guns, 1,500 prisoners and
destroyed a formidable fleet of the enemy. On the 16th of
September the Thirty-fourth regiment was sent to New Orleans and
from there to Morganza, where it remained for about three weeks.
Colonel Clark and Lieutenant-Colonel Dungan being absent on other
duties, Major Kern was left in command of the regiment. During a
skirmish with the enemy in this vicinity Lieutenant Walton was
severely wounded. On the 12th of November, 1864, an order
was issued reducing the regiment, now numbering less than half the
maximum, to a battalion of five companies. The major, adjutant, and
several other officers were consequently mustered out. On the 12th
of December this battalion was consolidated with the Thirty-eighth
and the regiment thus formed was called the Thirty-fourth, Colonel
Clark and Lieutenant-Colonel Dungan remained in their offices. It
now numbered nine hundred fifty men. The next important duty of the
regiment was with the army of General Canby against Mobile. It
participated in the siege and assault of Blakely and lost three
killed and nine wounded, was afterward sent to Galveston and
Houston, in Texas, and mustered out of service at the latter place
on the 15th of August, 1865, reaching Davenport on the 29th
where it met with a most cordial reception. During the term of
service this regiment had traveled more than 15,000 miles
|
