The Civil War
History of The Iowa National Guard
CW2 David L. Snook
In
April of 1861, most Iowans were going about the business of
building a young state. Farms and towns were being established.
Railroads connected most settled areas in the eastern part of the
state and were gradually being extended westward. The Confederate
attack on Fort Sumter changed everything. Personal concerns were
put aside, and the entire state became involved in the war effort.
The War
Department issued a call for volunteers and asked for one
regiment from Iowa. Governor Samuel Kirkwood was uncertain if
Iowa could raise the number of volunteers necessary to meet its
quota, but enough men enlisted to form ten regiments. By the end
of the war, Iowa had the highest percentage of volunteer
enlistments of any state, North or South.
In
total, Iowa furnished 48 infantry regiments, 9 cavalry regiments
and 4 batteries of artillery. Iowa also furnished one black
regiment and a thousand replacement troops.
Iowa’s 76,000
soldiers conducted themselves with honor throughout the war.
Twenty-seven received Congressional Medals of Honor. Thirteen
thousand died. Many more died from disease than from bullet
wounds.
Three Iowans
became major generals during the war. Samuel Curtis of Keokuk was
a graduate of West Point. He was also a member of Iowa’s
congressional delegation. He resigned from Congress in 1861 and
commanded Iowa forces at the Battle of Pea Ridge. Grenville M.
Dodge, an engineer and railroad builder, had settled in Council
Bluffs in the 1850s. He recruited a company of volunteers at the
start of the war and served under General Curtis at the Battle of
Pea Ridge. He participated in many major battles (including
Vicksburg and Chattanooga). He was wounded three times. Iowa’s
youngest major general was Francis Herron, a Dubuque banker. He
served at both Pea Ridge (1861) and Prairie Grove (1862).
Iowans fought in
many battles. Iowa soldiers first saw combat at Wilson’s
Creek, Missouri, and Pea Ridge, Arkansas. Early in the war, many
Iowa units accompanied General Ulysses S. Grant in his campaign
to gain control of the Mississippi River. They took part in the
great battles of Fort Henry, Fort Donelson and Shiloh. At Shiloh,
five Iowa regiments "saved" Grant’s army by
holding the center of the Union line (called the "hornets’
nest" by attacking Confederates) until late in the first day
of the battle. This campaign ended with the great Union victory
at Vicksburg, Mississippi, on July 4, 1863. Iowa soldiers then
fought in Mississippi and Tennessee. Finally, in the spring of
1865, thousands of Iowans took part in General William Tecumseh
Sherman’s famous "March to the Sea" through
Georgia and South Carolina.
 Although cannon balls and
bullets had been fired across the Des Moines River into Iowa
dwellings, the only actual fighting in Iowa occurred in 1864.
Missouri "guards" raided Davis County, robbing, looting
and murdering. Bloomfield’s county fair was in progress, and
a posse was organized under Colonel James Weaver. Unfortunately,
the raiders disappeared across the Missouri border before they
could be apprehended.
Iowa’s first
Civil War battle death was Shelby Norman of Muscatine. Norman was
killed at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek in 1861.
The youngest
Iowan to serve in the war may have been Cyrus Lichty of Cedar
Falls. Lichty was only twelve when he enlisted as a drummer boy
in 1861. He survived until 1940.
Iowa also gained
fame for a unique military unit known as the Graybeard Regiment.
The unit was composed of men too old to serve in combat (over 45).
Nearly all were over 50. Many were in their 70s, and a few were
in their 80s! The Graybeards enlisted in spite of the fact that
they had a total of 1,300 sons and grandsons on the fighting
front. The elderly men were not expected to fight but were given
duties of escorting trains and guarding railroads and prisoners.
Near Memphis, a supply train they were guarding was fired on by
rebels; two of the Graybeards were killed, but the rest got the
train through. During their service, they guarded 160,000
prisoners. Iowa was the only state to have a Graybeard Regiment.
Like their
husbands, sons, fathers and brothers, Iowa women performed heroic
service during the Civil War. Many organized Soldiers Aid
Societies to raise money to buy food, clothing and medicines for
sick and wounded soldiers. Some, like Annie Turner Wittenmeyer,
followed Iowa units across the South, setting up hospitals and
"diet kitchens." Others, like Mrs. M. J. Upright,
managed farms that continued to supply the needs of both the
civilian population of the North and the thousands of soldiers
fighting in the South. Mrs. Upright’s situation was
especially interesting. She single-handedly operated the large
family farm near Aplington, while her husband and twelve sons
served in the Union Army.
Iowa’s Major Generals
Samuel Curtis
Samuel Curtis was
the first and oldest of Iowa’s major generals. He was born
in New York on February 3, 1807. A West Point graduate, a veteran
of the Mexican War, and a member of Iowa’s congressional
delegation in 861, he obviously possessed the qualifications for
a senior military command.
When the Civil
War broke out, Curtis became an active recruiter, and on June 1,
1861, was named colonel of the Second Iowa Infantry. He was soon
promoted to brigadier general and resigned his congressional seat.
In December, 1861, he was placed in command of the District of
Southwest Missouri. After defeating the forces of Confederate
General Sterling Price in the Battle of Pea Ridge, he was made a
major general. (Brigham, Johnson, Iowa – Its History and
Foremost Citizens, The J. S. Clarke Publishing Company, 1918,
p. 353)
Because of his
strong anti-slavery beliefs, he was transferred, in January of
1864, from the Department of Missouri to the Department of Kansas.
In Kansas, he again defeated General Price, who was attempting to
capture Fort Leavenworth. (Brigham, 354)
At the conclusion
of the Civil War, Curtis was made a United States commissioner to
negotiate treaties with various Indian tribes, thus clearing the
way for the extension of the Union Pacific Railroad.
General Curtis
died at Council Bluffs, Iowa, on December 26, 1866.
Francis Herron
Francis Herron
was Iowa’s youngest major general. He was also a recipient
of the Medal of Honor.
Born in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1837 and educated at Western
University, Herron came to Dubuque in 1855 and entered the
banking business. A the start of the Civil War, he responded to
the first call for volunteers, and his company, the "Governor’s
Greys," became Company I, First Iowa Infantry. He led his
men at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, and, upon returning to
Iowa, was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the Ninth Iowa. He
was awarded the Medal of Honor for gallantry at the Battle of Pea
Ridge in 1862. The citation states that he was "foremost in
leading his men, rallying them to repeated acts of daring, until
himself disabled and taken prisoner." He was soon exchanged,
and his performance at the Battle of Prairie Grove resulted in
his promotion to major general. (Brigham, 355)
At the siege of
Vicksburg, in 1863, Herron’s troops occupied the left of
General Ulysses Grant’s line. After the capitulation of the
city, he was transferred to the Department of the Gulf, where he
participated in the siege of Mobile. He resigned from the army in
1865. He then became involved in various business enterprises in
both New Orleans and New York City. He died in New York on
January 8, 1902. (Brigham, 356)
Grenville M. Dodge
Grenville Dodge
is considered by many historians to be Iowa’s greatest Civil
war general. (Brigham, 342) Dodge also played a major role in
post-Civil War history. As an explorer and chief engineer for the
Union Pacific Railway, he helped to build the first
transcontinental railroad.
Grenville Mellen
Dodge was born in Danvers, Massachusetts, on April 12, 1831. He
attended Norwich Military Academy in Newbury, Vermont, graduating
as a civil engineer in 1850. In the early 1850s, Dodge worked as
a surveyor for railroad companies in Illinois and Iowa. From 1853
to 1860, he led several expeditions, which explored large areas
of the Great Plains, while conducting preliminary surveys for the
Union Pacific Railway.
In 1861, the
Civil War interrupted Dodge’s life, as it did millions of
his countrymen. After raising a company of volunteers in Council
Bluffs, he became a member of Governor Samuel Kirkwood’s
staff and was sent to Washington to secure arms for Iowa troops.
He obtained 6,000 muskets and was offered a commission in the
Regular Army. He declined, preferring to serve in the Iowa
Militia.
Commissioned as a
colonel, Dodge took command of the 4th Iowa Infantry
on June 17, 1861. Although wounded twice during the Missouri
campaigns of 1861 and 1862, Colonel Dodge led his men in the
capture of Springfield (February, 1862) and commanded the right
flank of Union forces at the Battle of Pea Ridge (March, 1862),
which held against a greatly superior Confederate force.
As a reward for
his service in Missouri, Colonel Dodge was promoted to brigadier
general and put in command of the Central Division of the Army of
the Tennessee. Successful campaigns followed in Tennessee and
Mississippi.
In the fall of
1863, General Ulysses S. Grant gave Dodge’s troops a special
assignment – repairing and reopening the Nashville and
Decatur Railway, which would reduce logistical problems faced by
Union forces in the South. In Grant’s words, "General
Dodge, besides being a most capable officer, was an experienced
railroad builder. He had no tools to work with other than those
of the pioneers – axes, picks and spades. With these, he was
able to entrench his men and protect them against (enemy attack)…General
Dodge had the work assigned to him finished within forty days of
receiving his orders. The number of bridges to rebuild was 182,
many of them over wide and deeps chasms; the length of the road
repaired was 102 miles." (Brigham, 342)
"In the
Atlanta campaign of 1864, General Dodge commanded the 16th
Army Corps. The 2nd, 7th and 39th
Iowa regiments served in this corps. General Dodge joined General
Sherman in early May and soon engaged in a winning movement to
Resaca (in northwestern Georgia), forcing General Johnston to
abandon his position in Dalton. In this campaign, Dodge held the
right flank of General Sherman’s army. For his gallant
service, the double star of the major general was conferred upon
him. Before Atlanta, the general was wounded for the third time."
(Brigham, 346)
In November of
1864, Dodge was placed in command of the Department of Missouri.
In January of 1865, the Departments of Kansas, Nebraska and Utah
were added to his command. In 1865-1866, headquartered in St.
Louis, he oversaw the Indian campaigns on the plains, protecting
overland routes to California.
In May of 1866,
Dodge retired from the service and was elected to Congress.
Declining renomination after one term, the general devoted
himself to the completion of the transcontinental railroad,
serving as chief engineer of the Union Pacific Railway. Completed
in May of 1869, the project was one of the great engineering
feats of the nineteenth century.
Dodge died in
Council Bluffs on January 3, 1916. His home there is now a museum.
He was remembered as "one of the great soldiers of the War
of the Rebellion whose after-record ranks with their record in
the field."
In 1905, a state
Militia Training Camp was established just north of Des Moines
and named in the general’s honor. Greatly expanded in 1914,
it served as a training center for over 40,000 men during World
War I. Today, Camp Dodge is the state headquarters of the Iowa
National Guard.
The Iowa Militia – Record of Civil War
Service
Regiment/Battery (Muster Date/Site)
– Major Engagements
First Iowa Volunteer Infantry (14
May 1861/Keokuk) – Wilson’s Creek (MO)
Second Iowa Volunteer Infantry (27-28
May 1861/Keokuk) – Fort Henry (TN), Fort Donelson (TN),
Shiloh (TN), Corinth (MS), March to the Sea (GA and SC)
Third Iowa Volunteer Infantry (8-10
June 1861/Keokuk) – Blue Mills (MO), Shiloh, Vicksburg (MS),
Jackson (MS), March to the Sea
Fourth Iowa Volunteer Infantry (8-31
August 1861/Council Bluffs) – Pea Ridge (AR), Vicksburg,
Jackson, Atlanta (GA), March to the Sea
Fifth Iowa Volunteer Infantry (15-16
July 1861/Burlington) – Iuka (MS), Corinth, Vicksburg,
Missionary Ridge (TN)
Sixth Iowa Volunteer Infantry (17-18
July 1861/Burlington) – Shiloh, Corinth, Chattanooga (TN),
March to the Sea
Seventh Iowa Volunteer Infantry (2
August 1861/Burlington) – Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Shiloh,
Corinth, March to the Sea
Eighth Iowa Volunteer Infantry (31
August-4 September 1861/Davenport) – Shiloh, Vicksburg,
Jackson, Mobile (AL)
Ninth Iowa Volunteer Infantry (2-24
September 1861/Dubuque) – Pea Ridge, Vicksburg, Jackson,
Lookout Mountain (TN), Missionary Ridge, March to the Sea
Tenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry (6-7
September 1861/Iowa City) – Corinth, Vicksburg, Jackson,
Missionary Ridge, March to the Sea
Eleventh Iowa Volunteer Infantry (14
September-19 October 1861/Davenport) – Shiloh, Corinth,
Vicksburg, Louisiana, March to the Sea
Twelfth Iowa Volunteer Infantry (17
October-25 November 1861/Dubuque) – Fort Henry, Fort
Donelson, Shiloh
Thirteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry (15
October-2 November 1861/Davenport) – Shiloh, March to the
Sea, Columbia (SC)
Fourteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry (23-25
October 1861/Iowa City) – Shiloh and Vicksburg
Fifteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry (1
November 1861-22 February 1862/Keokuk) – Shiloh, Corinth,
Atlanta, March to the Sea
Sixteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry (10
December 1861-12 March 1862/Davenport) – Shiloh, Corinth,
Atlanta, Andersonville (GA)
Seventeenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry
(25 January-14 March 1862/Keokuk) – Iuka, Corinth,
Vicksburg, Missionary Ridge, March to the Sea
Eighteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry (5-9
August 1862/Clinton) – Springfield (MO), Camden (MO)
Nineteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry (11
September 1862/Keokuk) – Prairie Grove, Vicksburg, Sterling
Farm
Twentieth Iowa Volunteer Infantry (22-27
August 1862/Clinton) – Prairie Grove, Vicksburg, Sterling
Farm
Twenty-first Iowa Volunteer Infantry
(23 May and 18-25 August 1862/Mitchell County and others) –
Springfield, Vicksburg
Twenty-second Iowa Volunteer
Infantry (7-10 September 1862/Iowa City) – Springfield,
Vicksburg, Shenandoah Valley (VA)
Twenty-third Iowa Volunteer Infantry
(19 September 1862/Des Moines) – Port Gibson (MS), Vicksburg
Twenty-fourth Iowa Volunteer
Infantry (18 September 1862/Muscatine) – "Methodist
Regiment"/"Temperance Regiment" – Vicksburg,
Red River, Shenandoah Valley
Twenty-fifth Iowa Volunteer Infantry
(1862/Mount Pleasant) – Vicksburg, Lookout Mountain,
Missionary Ridge, March to the Sea, Columbia
Twenty-sixth Iowa Volunteer Infantry
(1862/Clinton) – Vicksburg, Lookout Mountain, Missionary
Ridge, March to the Sea
Twenty-seventh Iowa Volunteer
Infantry (3 October 1862/Dubuque) – Vicksburg, Red River
Twenty-eighth Iowa Volunteer
Infantry (10 October 1862/Iowa City) – Vicksburg, Red River,
Shenandoah Valley
Twenty-ninth Iowa Volunteer Infantry
(1 December 1862/Council Bluffs) – Helena (AR), Little Rock
(AR), Mobile
Thirtieth Iowa Volunteer Infantry (23
September 1862/Keokuk) – Vicksburg, Lookout Mountain,
Missionary Ridge, March to the Sea
Thirty-first Iowa Volunteer Infantry
(15 September-13 October 1862/Davenport) – Vicksburg,
Jackson, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, March to the Sea
Thirty-second Iowa Volunteer
Infantry (6 October 1862/Dubuque) – Red River, Mobile
Thirty-third Iowa Volunteer Infantry
(1 October 1862/Oskaloosa) – Helena, Red River, Mobile
Thirty-fourth Iowa Volunteer
Infantry (15 October 1862/Burlington) – Vicksburg, Red
River, Mobile
Thirty-fifth Iowa Volunteer Infantry
(18 September 1862/Muscatine) – Vicksburg, Jackson, Red
River, Nashville (TN)
Thirty-sixth Iowa Volunteer Infantry
(4 October 1862/Keokuk) – Helena, Little Rock, Mark’s
Mills (AR)
Thirty-seventh Iowa Volunteer
Infantry (10 October 1862/Muscatine) – "Graybeard
Regiment" (See main text.)
Thirty-eighth Iowa Volunteer
Infantry (4 November 1862/Dubuque) – Vicksburg, Red River
Thirty-ninth Iowa Volunteer Infantry
(1 November 1862/Des Moines) – Corinth, Allatoona (GA),
March to the Sea
Union Brigade (April-December 1862/organized
from remnants of the 8th, 12th and 14th
Iowa regiments and the 58th Illinois regiment) –
Corinth
Fortieth Iowa Volunteer Infantry (2
July 1862/Iowa City) – Vicksburg, Red River
Forty-first Iowa Volunteer Infantry
(1862 – never officially organized) – These companies
were detached to the Dakota Territory.
Forty-second Iowa Volunteer Infantry
(1864 – never officially organized) – Many of these men
transferred to cavalry regiments.
Forty-third Iowa Volunteer Infantry
(1864 – never officially organized) – Many of these men
transferred to cavalry regiments.
Forty-fourth Iowa Volunteer Infantry
(1864/Davenport) – guarded trains (TN)
Forty-fifth Iowa Volunteer Infantry
(1864/Keokuk) – guarded trains (TN)
Forty-sixth Iowa Volunteer Infantry
(10 June 1864/Davenport) – guarded trains (TN)
Forty-seventh Iowa Volunteer
Infantry (4 June 1864/Davenport) – garrison duty at Helena (AR)
Forty-eighth Iowa Volunteer Infantry
(13 July 1864/Davenport) – guard duty at Rock Island
Barracks
First Iowa Volunteer African
Infantry (11 October-3 December 1863/Keokuk) – Wallace"s
Ferry (AR)
First Battery Iowa Light Artillery (17
August 1861/Burlington) – Pea Ridge, Chickasaw Bayou (AR),
Vicksburg, Jackson, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Atlanta
Second Battery Iowa Light Artillery
(8-31 August 1861/Council Bluffs) – Iuka, Corinth,
Vicksburg, Jackson, Nashville, Mobile
Third Battery Iowa Light Artillery (24
September 1861/Dubuque) – Sugar Creek (MO), Pea Ridge,
Helena, Little Rock, Arkadelphia (AR)
Fourth Battery Iowa Light Artillery
(23 November 1863/Davenport) – garrison guards (northwestern
Iowa/New Orleans, Louisiana)
First Iowa Volunteer Cavalry (17
August-12 September 1861/Burlington and Davenport) – Prairie
Grove, Little Rock, Camden
Second Iowa Volunteer Cavalry (30
August-28 September 1861/Davenport) – Iuka, Corinth,
Boonville (MS), Vicksburg
Third Iowa Volunteer Cavalry (30
August-14 September 1861/Keokuk) – Pea Ridge, Vicksburg,
Tupelo, Montgomery (AL), Columbus (GA)
Fourth Iowa Volunteer Cavalry (23
November 1861-1 January 1862/Mount Pleasant) – Vicksburg,
Jackson, Tupelo, Montgomery, Columbus
Fifth Iowa Volunteer Cavalry ("The
Curtis Horse") (1862 – included men from Iowa,
Minnesota, Nebraska, and Missouri) – Wilson’s Creek,
Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Atlanta, Nashville
Sixth Iowa Volunteer Cavalry (1862/Davenport)
– White Stone Hill (Dakota Territory – against Sioux
Indians)
Seventh Iowa Volunteer Cavalry (27
April-13 July 1863/Davenport) – Horse Creek, White Stone
Hill, Tahkahakutah, Bad Lands, Little Blue, Julesburg, Mud
Springs, Rush Creek (Dakota Territory – against Sioux
Indians)
Eighth Iowa Volunteer Cavalry (30
September 1863/Davenport) – Atlanta, Nashville
Ninth Iowa Volunteer Infantry (30
November 1863/Davenport) – Devall’s Bluff (AR)
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