of
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| History of Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume I, 1911, pages 146-150
SEVENTH IOWA INFANTRY. The companies composing the Seventh Iowa were ordered to rendezvous at Burlington, Iowa, and were mustered into the service of the United States by Lieutenant Alexander Chambers, United States Army, on dates ranging from July 23 to August 2, 1861. Its first field officers were: Colonel, Jacob G. Lauman; lieutenant colonel, Augustus Wentz; and major, Elliott W. Rice. Like its predecessors, the Seventh had but a short stay in its camp at rendezvous, for on the 6th day of August, only four days after its last company had been mustered, the regiment was ordered to St. Louis, and embarked on the steamer Jennie Whipple, with its equippage and baggage. It arrived in St. Louis on the morning of the 8th and marched to the government arsenal, where it was armed, the two flanking companies with Springfield rifles, and the other eight companies with improved Springfield muskets.
The regiment was in Jefferson Barracks for a short time, then went to Pilot Knob, thence to Ironton, where it remained in camp about two weeks, during which time it had the first opportunity to learn the manual of arms and was instructed in some of the more simple movements of the company, battalion and regimental drill. About the 1st of September it started on its first campaign with a division composed of six regiments, under command of Brigadier General B. M. Prentiss.
BATTLE OF BELMONT. Jackson and Cape Girardeau, Missouri, were occupied and from the latter place the regiment proceeded by steamboat to Cairo, Illinois, and immediately after its arrival there was sent to occupy the position afterward known as Fort Holt, Kentucky. It remained there but two weeks and then moved to a point near Columbus, where the rebels had constructed a strong fort. From this point, named Camp Crittenden, the main body of the regiment moved to Fort Jefferson on the Mississippi river, but left a strong picket guard at Camp Crittenden, where one man was wounded in a skirmish with the enemy. Leaving Fort Jefferson, the regiment proceeded to Norfolk and Bird's Point and at the latter point remained for some weeks, doing picket and guard duty. November 6th the regiment proceeded on board transports to a point on the Missouri shore about three miles above Belmont, where eight of its ten companies disembarked, leaving two companies to guard the transports, and joining the Twenty-second Illinois Regiment, advanced on the left of the Union line against the enemy. The official report of Colonel Lauman shows the entire loss in killed, wounded, prisoners and missing out of an aggregate of somewhat over four hundred engaged, to be: killed, fifty-one; died of wounds, three; missing, ten; prisoners, thirty-nine; and wounded, one hundred and twenty-four.
General Grant reported the total loss in his command at four hundred and eighty-seven. It will thus be seen that the Seventh Iowa sustained a loss of nearly one-half that of the two brigades engaged in the battle of Belmont. It seemed almost incredible that these untrained troops, fighting their first battle and led by regimental and company officers without military training or experience, should have acquitted themselves when under fire for the first time as well as in any of the subsequent battles in which they were engaged, and in all of which they nobly maintained the honor of the state which sent them into the field. Another notable feature of the battle of Belmont was the fact that it was the first in which General Grant had command of the Union troops and his opportunity to demonstrate his fitness and capacity to command. While the Seventh Iowa Infantry had a long and most honorable record of service and greatly distinguished itself upon other battlefields, the limitation of space will not permit a complete report of this battle.
Like the commander under whom it fought its first--and measured by the loss in killed and wounded, its greatest--battle, it went steadily and stubbornly forward to accomplish the work set before it. Early in November, 1861, the regiment was ordered to proceed to Benton Barracks, near St. Louis, where it enjoyed a brief season of rest and partly made up for its losses by recruiting. During this time it also diligently improved the time in drilling and of learning more fully the duties of soldiers in time of war. On the 13th of January, 1862, the regiment was embarked on the steamer Continental and again started for the south, but the weather was so intensely cold and the river so full of floating ice that they made but little progress and after proceeding about twenty miles, the boat became fastened in the ice in the middle of the river. The weather remaining cold, the ice became solid enough in a couple of days for the regiment to pass over it to the shore, and it returned to St. Louis by rail, the next day crossed the Mississippi and proceeded to Cairo, Illinois. A few days later it was ordered up the Tennessee to assist in the capture of Fort Henry but Commodore Foote with his fleet of gunboats had captured the fort just before the arrival of the regiment. Upon its arrival the regiment entered Fort Henry and remained there until the 12th of February, when it took up the line of march from Fort Donelson and assisted in its capture.
The loss of the regiment in this engagement was two killed and thirty-seven wounded. Its relatively small loss as compared with the Second Iowa is accounted for by the fact that the Second led in the assault, while the Seventh was with the supporting column and therefore was not greatly exposed to the heavy fire of the enemy's musketry and artillery, but the regiment performed its full duty in the position in which it was placed. After the fall of Donelson, the regiment remained in the fort for some three weeks, quartered in the rude cabins which the rebels had erected. It then marched to Metal Landing on the Tennessee and after about a week there went on board the steamer White Cloud, proceeding to Pittsburg Landing, where it went into camp. On the morning of April 6, 1862, the regiment went into action under command of Lieutenant Colonel J. C. Parrott and in the two days' progress of that great battle again nobly maintained the honor of its state.
On the second day the gallant Lieutenant Colonel Parrott was so prostrated by illness and exposure that he was compelled to relinquish the command to Major E. W. Rice, of whom he says in his official report: "I knew it was placed in good hands, and from him I was proud to learn that it did its duty unflinchingly."
CONSPICUOUS AT THE BATTLE OF SHILOH. On the first day of the battle of Shiloh, Iowa troops were conspicuous in this last line of resistance, where the fighting continued until after dark and resulted in checking the advance of the enemy and retrieving the disasters of that day. At the close of this battle the Seventh Iowa had been in the service but about eight months, had participated in three important battles with an aggregate loss of three hundred of the eight hundred and eighty-four officers and men with which it had left the state, and yet it had not completed one-third of its long and arduous term of service. After the battle of Shiloh the regiment remained in camp until the Union army again assumed the offensive and the advance upon Corinth began, which resulted in the siege of that stronghold and its evacuation by the enemy on the 3oth of May, 1862.
In all the operations of the brigade and division to which it was attached during this advance and siege, the Seventh Iowa had its full share on the skirmish and picket line during the advance in trenches during the siege and in the pursuit of the enemy after the evacuation. The pursuit ended at Boonville, Mississippi, the enemy having made good its retreat, and the Seventh, with its brigade and division, returned to Corinth, going into camp about two miles southeast of that place, where it remained for the balance of the summer, doing picket and camp guard duty and perfecting itself in company and battalion drill and manual of arms. In his official report Lieutenant Colonel Parrott says: "On the 15th of September we were ordered to Iuka; arrived there on the I7th and, as stated in General Grant's order No. 1, our division deserves as much credit and praise as the troops who were actually engaged."
LOSS IN BATTLE OF CORINTH. From Iuka the regiment returned to Camp Montgomery, where it remained until the 3d of October, when it was again called into action to meet the forces of Van Dorn and Price, who were advancing to the attack of the Union forces in and around Corinth. Major Elliott W. Rice, having been promoted to the rank of colonel was now in command of the regiment. His official report of the conduct of the Seventh Iowa in the hard fought battle of Corinth sounds praise for the heroism displayed by the members of the gallant regiment.
The regiment's loss in the battle of Corinth was one hundred and twenty-two, making a total loss in battle up to and including the 4th of October, 1862, of four hundred and twenty-two officers and men. When the long list of names of those who had died from disease and of those who had been discharged on account of disability caused by sickness is added to the actual casualties in battle, the tremendous aggregate loss of this regiment was but little more than fourteen months' record of service almost equal to the number first mustered into the service at Burlington, while its original term of service was not yet half completed. Of course many recruits had been received and many of the sick and wounded had from time to time sufficiently recovered to be able to return to the regiment and thus its decimated ranks were replenished, but never again did it number half the maximum of a full regiment of officers and men able for duty at any one time. On the morning of the 5th of October, 1862, the regiment went in pursuit of the retreating enemy but on the evening of that day was ordered to return to Corinth. It was stationed at Rienzi and at other points contiguous to Corinth until about the last of November, when it returned to the latter place and went into camp, where it remained until March, 1863, when it was ordered to occupy Bethel, Tennessee. It remained there until about the 1st of June, then returned to Corinth, thence marched to Moscow, Tennessee, and camped there one month. It then marched to La Grange, Tennessee, from which point it participated in an expedition to Holly Springs, Mississippi, after which it returned to La Grange, where it remained until the last of October. It was then ordered to Iuka, and remaining there but a short time, again took up the line of march, crossed the Tennessee river at East Port and on the 11th of November, 1863, went into winter quarters at Pulaski Tennessee. Here the men erected rude huts, in which they made themselves comparatively comfortable. The railroad having been completely destroyed by the enemy, the nearest depot of supplies was thirty-six miles from this camp at Pulaski, and during the inclement weather in December the regiment suffered severely while guarding a supply train of one hundred and fifty wagons to and from its camp. Toward the last of December, 1863, three-fourths of the men then present reenlisted and were given a furlough of thirty days to begin upon their arrival in Keokuk, Iowa. They were furnished with transportation to Keokuk and from that place to their respective homes.
RENDEZVOUS AT KEOKUK AFTER REENLISTMENT. On the 2oth of February the men commenced to arrive at Keokuk, where they had been ordered to rendezvous and on the 25th all had arrived, and with them came two hundred recruits, who were mustered into the service to strengthen the depleted ranks of the regiment. On the 27th of February, 1864, the veterans and recruits left Keokuk by steamboat and, arriving at Cairo, were transferred to smaller transports, which conveyed them to Nashville. From that point they proceeded to Prospect, Tennessee, where the regiment performed garrison duty until April 29th, when it started on the ever memorable Atlanta campaign, in which it bore a most conspicuous part, as shown by the official reports of Colonel Rice and others.
On the 14th of May the regiment met and defeated the enemy in a hard fought battle at Lay's Ferry on the Oostanaula river. Major McMullin was the commanding officer in this battle. Lieutenant Colonel Parrott being at that time sick and unable for duty. From this time on until the close of the campaign on the 1st of September, the Seventh Iowa was constantly at the front.
The regiment next took an active part in the operations which resulted in the evacuation of Atlanta. It then proceeded to Rome, Georgia, thence to Allatoona by rail, but owing to an accident to the train, did not arrive in time to take part in the battle on the 5th of October, reaching there just after the enemy had been repulsed. It then returned to Rome and on the 11th of November took up the march through the heart of Georgia, entering the city of Savannah, December 21, 1864. On the 28th of January, 1865, the regiment left Savannah to enter upon its last great campaign through the Carolinas, which practically ended in the last days of March, 1865. Upon reaching Goldsboro, the regiment had covered a distance of four hundred and eighty miles from their starting point on the southern seacoast, but after a season of rest again started north, cheered by the thought that the cause for which they had suffered and endured such great hardships was at last triumphant and the remainder of the march to washington could be made with comparative ease. At last the goal was reached. On that memorable 24th day of May, 1865, the Seventh Iowa Infantry proudly wheeled into its place in line with the grand army which marched down that broad avenue of the nation's capitol and passed in review for the last time. Its days of marching and fighting were over. A little later it was sent to Louisville, Kentucky, where on the 12th of July, 1865, it was mustered out of service. It was then sent to Davenport, Iowa, where final payment was made, the regiment disbanded and the men furnished with transportation to their homes. The summary of casualties is as follows: total enrollment, one thousand five hundred and fifty-two; killed, ninety-eight; wounded, three hundred and fifty-four; died of disease, one hundred and forty-two; died of wounds, thirty-eight; discharged for disease, wounds, etc., three hundred and twenty-eight; buried in national cemeteries, one hundred and nine; captured, seventy-nine; transferred, twenty-nine.
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