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Iowa and the Rebellion
CHAPTER XXIX.Lurton Denham Ingersoll Philadelphia, Lippincott, 1866 TWENTY FIFTH INFANTRY.
ORGANIZATION AT CAMP McCLEAN, NEAR MOUNT PLEASANT—MOVE TOHELENA, ARKANSAS— GENERAL SHERMAN S UNSUCCESSFUL ATTACK ON VICKSBURG BY CHICKASAW BAYOUS— THE ARMY TINDER McCLERNAND MOVES AGAINST ARKANSAS POST—ITS CAPTURE—THE CAMPAIGNS OF VICKSBURG AND JACKSON THE city of Mount Pleasant, the seat of the Iowa Wesleyan University, and of several other institutions of learning, has been called the Athens of our State. Distinguished for the intelligence and high-toned morality of its population, for its men who have become eminent in politics and literature, it is one of the finest little cities in Christendom. It was hard by this pleasant town, that the Twenty-fifth Iowa Infantry was organized, in the month of September, 1862, under the command of Colonel George A. Stone, who had been a lieutenant in the First Infantry, and a Major in the Fourth Cavalry. He had associated with him Lieutenant-Colonel Fabian Brydolph, Major Calvin Taylor. His Adjutant was Samuel Kirkwood Clarke, of Iowa City. Doctor William S. Marsh was surgeon, with James D. Gray and Henry M. Farr, assistants; Frederick J. Clark, Quartermaster; Reverend Thomas E. Corkhill, Chaplain. The companies composing the Twenty-fifth were enrolled in four counties of the First Congressional District—four in Henry, three in Des Moines, two in Washington, and one in Louisa. They moved to the rendezvous the 1st of September, Early in November, the Twenty-fifth shook hands with the hospitable people of Mount Pleasant and "High Henry" County, and moved for the front. Merely stopping at St. Louis, it proceeded down the river, and on the 17th made the port of Helena, after having undergone the many discomforts and annoying delays incident to the navigation of even the Father of Waters at a period of unusual drought. It remained at Helena about four weeks, portions of the command, however, accompanying reconnoitering expeditions to White River, westward, and the Coldwater, in Mississippi. The 22d of December, being then attached to General C. E. Hovey's Second Brigade of Steele's First Division, Fifteenth Army Corps, the regiment embarked on transport, and moved down the Mississippi with the forces under General Sherman, who soon afterwards delivered unsuccessful attack against Vicksburg by Chickasaw Bayou. The battle of this name, a series of disconnected engagements, and a final heroic charge by a few troops, who were repulsed with great slaughter, was the first in which the Twentyfifth Iowa took part. But it did not join in the main charge against the enemy's impregnable position, nor did it meet with serious loss. One man was slain and a few were wounded. The army withdrew, and a few days afterwards passed into the command of General McClernand, at Young's Point. That officer designated the troops under his command the Army of the Mississippi, and at once began the campaign which resulted in the capture of Arkansas Post, on the 11th of January, 1863. In this campaign, in the battle which crowned it with victory, and enriched it with the spoils of war, the Twenty-fifth performed its part most handsomely, winning the praises of superior officers, and suffering a loss of about sixty, killed and wounded, and a few captured. Among the mortally wounded was Adjutant Samuel Kirkwood, a most promising young officer, warmly esteemed by the whole command. The regiment, returning to the vicinity of Vicksburg, disembarked at Young's Point, and went into encampment within less than one mile of the famous "Butler Canal." The army remained encamped about Young's Point several wet, weary, gloomy months. There are qualities of a commander of troops less noticed by the crowd, but not less valuable to the troops, than the quality of dashing courage on the field of battle. The eminent talents of Colonel Stone, of which I have already spoken, were specially exercised during this era of general sickness and gloom. He inaugurated a system of drill and exercise which did much in the way of counteracting the evil effects of long confinement on transports, and of an unhealthy locality: The strict policing of camp and quarters was constantly enforced. To this rigid but wise government of his command by the colonel may fairly be attributed the fact, that during the regiment's three months' stay in that region of pestilence and malaria, but four men died in the camp of the Twenty fifth Iowa; whilst in most other regiments the deaths were numbered by the scores, and in not a few by fifties and hundreds. 3 During the encampment of the regiment near Young's Point there were several changes in the command. Captain Smith, of Company B. resigned, and was succeeded by Lieutenant Ritner. Captain Russell, of Company I, also resigned. Private Thomas H. Maxwell was promoted to the command. Private William F. Conrad, of Company G. succeeded to the Captaincy of Company K, in place of Gilmore who had resigned at Helena. Dr. Farr succeeded Surgeon Marsh, resigned. Chaplain Corkhill also here left the service by resigning his commission. Finally, Lieutenant Samuel W. Snow, succeeded the lamented Kirkwood Clarke as Adjutant. The 2d of April, the regiment joined its division in that expedition made by General Steele, to Greenville, Mississippi, and into the interior of the State, which not only materially aided General Grant by the large captures of stores made thereby, but served also to attract the enemy's attention from the principal movement of the campaign. The division remained encamped near Greenville, making sundry excursions into the adjoining country, till the 24th, when, the purpose of the movement having been entirely accomplished, it returned to Milliken's Bend. Thence Colonel Stone, commanding his own and a Missouri regiment, marched to Richmond, where he remained a few days, and then marched to Grand Gulf, recently fallen into our possession. The main portion of the army had already moved on in the direction of Jackson, and the Twenty-fifth was ordered to escort the train. This was done, the regiment rejoining the division at Clinton, returning, victorious, from Jackson. The next day, the rebels were sorely defeated at Champion Hills, but the troops of the Fifteenth Corps did not take part in the engagement. Pushing on rapidly, they crossed the Black River at Messenger's Ferry, on the night after the battle at the railroad bridge, where Colonel Kinsman fell, and his and the Twenty-first Iowa regiments won the brightest laurels of that hard fight. Pushing on rapidly again, they opened up the communications by the Yazoo River, and on the evening of the 18th, began the investment of Vicksburg. The next day the investment was completed, and the siege of the stronghold fully instituted. In the memorable assault of the 22d, in the difficult, wearing labors of the siege, from whose enervating influences it was impossible for even the strictest discipline and utmost skill to relieve the troops, the regiment well performed its part, and patiently bore its hardships. In the assault, the command lost about thirty, killed and wounded, among the latter being Captain James D. Spearman, seriously hurt. The loss of the regiment during the entire siege, was about fifteen slain and four times as many wounded. It is well known that General Steele's Division was on the right of the investment. Of his division, Colonel Stone's regiment held the right, and was therefore on the extreme right of the army. It is proper to observe that Colonel Stone speaks in the highest terms of the conduct of officers and men during the siege, and especially notes a daring exploit by Private Isaac Mickey performed on the trying day of the assault. The regiment joined in the movement against Jackson, by which General Sherman followed up the surrender of Vicksburg, and in that its last campaign in Mississippi lost one man slain and a few slightly wounded. Returning it went into encampment on the banks of Black River, where, in quiet, the command spent several weeks, and measurably recovered from the effects of the long confinement in the trenches about Vicksburg. Nevertheless, not a few of the men died from the effects of that confinement. The Twenty-fifth, being a part of the Fifteenth Army Corps, moved from its encampment near the Black River Bridge in September, and taking transport at Vicksburg for Memphis, thence entered upon the march across Tennessee to the relief of Chattanooga, which brought to General Sherman and his command so much renown. |