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Iowa and the Rebellion
THIRTEENTH INFANTRY.Lurton Denham Ingersoll Philadelphia, Lippincott, 1866 CHAPTER XIII. MARCELLUS M. CROCKER, THE FIRST COLONEL OF THE REGIMENT RENDEZVOUS AT DAVENPORT—ARMED AT ST. LOUIS— —CAMPAIGN IN MISSISSIPPI—LAKEPROVIDENCE—A SMALL CANAL AND A GREAT INUNDATION—OPERATIONS OF THE COMMAND DURING SIEGE OF VICKSBURG— "CROCKER'S GREYHOUNDS"—WINTER AT VICKSBURG The Thirteenth Iowa Volunteers, even had it not been formed so generally of men of superior physical strength, mental cultivation, and moral rectitude, must have gained a prominent position among the regiments of our State and country, for the reason that its first Colonel, and instructor in the art of war and the duties of soldiers, was MARCELLUS M. CROCKER, who was endowed by nature with a rare military genius, whose rapid comprehension and wide scope would, unless my personal regard greatly misleads me, have won for him a place in history next to that of McPherson, but for the painful disease on account of which he had to be borne from the field of active operations in the midst of the war, and which carried him to an untimely grave before the complete restoration of peace. He had early sought a military education, and did spend, in fact, more than two years at the West Point Academy, where he stood high in his class. He left that institution and devoted his energies to the support of his mother and sisters. When the war broke out he was a prominent lawyer of our State Capital, but immediately raised a company, which was attached to the Second regiment, of which he became Majors in which position his military abilities at once became evident, as they did much to make that organization one of the best in the service. He was fortunately appreciated, and by none snore than by Governor Kirkwood, who determined to promote him as soon as practicable. He was accordingly commissioned Colonel of the Thirteenth Iowa Infantry, which was recruited under the President's proclamation of July 23d, 1861, and ordered to rendezvous at Camp McClellan, near Davenport, where the regiment was completely organized, and the last company mustered into the service on the 2d day of November, 1861. Captain Chambers, the mustering officer, having rejected a small number of the men, there were embraced on the rolls, at the date of its entering the service, eight hundred and ninety-nine names, which number, however, was soon increased by additional enlistments to nine hundred and eighty-nine. Besides the commanding officer the field officers were: Milton M. Price, Lieutenant-Colonel, and John Shane, Major. 5 General McArthur's division did not halt long at Memphis. Embarking on steamers it moved down the river on the 20th of January, and reached Duckport, Louisiana, on the 25th. Without disembarking, however, the troops returned to the landing of Milliken's Bend, and there went ashore. The command remained encamped there a fortnight, at the end of which it moved by steamer to Providence, and there disembarking again went into camp, using for this purpose the fine plantation of "General" Edward Sparrow, a senator in the Confederate Congress from Louisiana. Here the division remained more than two months. The troops worked much of the time on the famous "Lake Providence Canal," in which the people of the North took so deep an interest, and from which they expected such great results. The canal was by no means in proportion to these great expectations, but when the water was let into it the inundation which resulted was surely great enough to make full amends. It deluged our troops so thoroughly that they were never able to overcome their disgust for canals. Whilst the troops were thus engaged near Lake Providence, the army generally was reorganized, the organization of corps d' armee having at length been adopted. General McArthur's division, on the new arrangement became the first of the Seventeenth Corps, General McPherson commanding. Colonel Crocker was promoted shortly afterwards to the rank of brigadier-general of volunteers, whereupon Lieutenant-Colonel Shane was commissioned colonel, Major Wilson lieutenant-colonel, and Captain William A. Walker, Company G. major. For a considerable portion of the period embraced in the campaign of Vicksburg, the Iowa Brigade performed peculiar services—services involving hard labor and tough marching qualities. These troops were called upon, in short, to do about all the hard marching and outside work for all that part of the army to which they belonged, during a period of about three months. Leasing Lake Providence near the close of April, they steamed down to Milliken's Bend, whence they marched to Holmes' Plantation, and were engaged near there a fortnight in guarding and repairing the roads over which the army marched when it swung round below Vicksburg. This duty done, they marched to Hard Times, and, crossing the Mississippi in steamers to Grand Gulf, then an important depot of supplies, remained in guard of the post for some days. They then moved, marching around Vicksburg on the west, and by water afterwards, to Gaines' Bluff, to reinforce the right of our army which had made a lodgment there, but soon returning marched to near Warrenton, and took position on the left of the line of investment. In the latter part of May they again moved, joining a force that was detailed to make a reconnaissance in the direction of Mechanicsville. It is no wonder the troops of the Iowa Brigade acquired the sobriquet of "Crocker's Greyhounds." Returning from the reconnaissance, they took position on the left, where they remained till the 24th of June. The rebel General Joe Johnston having made his appearance in rear of our army, General Sherman moved out to watch him, with the Army of Observation. The Thirteenth joined this force, and took position near Messenger's Ferry on Big Black River. On the 4th of July, while Vicksburg was being surrendered to Grant, it was skirmishing with Johnston' s rebels. That night they retreated on Jackson, and our command being a part of the Seventeenth Corps not assigned to the Expeditionary Army, remained in camp, with orders to be ready to march to Vicksburg at any time. Before the order came, however, it became necessary to send supplies to Sherman, and the Iowa Brigade, still in its role of performing extra duty for the army, escorted the train, consisting of several hundred wagons. The train was escorted safely to Clinton, where the brigade was relieved by troops from Sherman. Whereupon, Jackson having been evacuated, it countermarched, and halted at Vicksburg on the 28th. During all this long period of activity, much of the time in face of the enemy, the casualties of the Thirteenth regiment were but trifling, not to exceed forty, all told, I believe. Its labors, during most of the remainder of the summer, were light. For a long week in the early part of August the regiment was engaged, in connection with a portion of the navy, in wrecking and dismantling certain gunboats that had been sunk by the enemy's torpedoes in the Yazoo River, in the vicinity of Yazoo City. It also participated in the campaign, under General Stevenson, against Monroe, Louisiana, about eighty miles west of Vicksburg, which occupied about a fortnight. Upon its return, on September 3d, it went into quarters at Vicksburg, and there remained for five months, in the performance of the dull, monotonous duties of garrison life. From the 4th of February, 1864, to the 4th of March, the regiment was with the forces under General Sherman on the famous Meridian raid, participating throughout in that exciting enterprise. |