The story of a cavalry regiment : the career of the Fourth Iowa Veteran Volunteers : from Kansas to Georgia, 1861-1865

Front matter

EMORY UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

THE STORY OF

A CAVALRY REGIMENT

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

Preface xi

Introduction xv

Preface

Some years ago, at the request of the survivors of my regiment, I undertook to prepare a sketch of its operations, to be read at a reunion. The character of the post I had held and my possession of a quantity of contemporaneous papers naturally suggested to them that I should do it. The result was a sketch which I thought too long for the purpose intended and too short to be of permanent value. So, finding my comrades much interested in the work, I set about extending it into a fuller account, still, however, with only slight mention of campaigns or co-operating commands (the usual plan of the regimental histories I have seen), intending to make a book for the gratification of the veterans alone.

But this plan proved unsatisfactory to me, because it could not present an adequate idea of the value of the work of the corps nor suggest an intelligent conception of the purposes of that work. Though survivors of the war may be able to fill out a narrow history from memory, or may imagine they can, their children and friends, who now make a greater number of the readers of such books, lack both of the old soldier's advantages of knowledge and imagination. These considerations, together with the hope, to which I confess, that the xii PREFACE.

book might be of some value as a contribution to the history of the war, led me to adopt the plan upon which finally I worked.

I have intended to give, with the operations of the regiment itself, a general and brief account of each campaign and action in which it was engaged and of the movements of the associated corps, such as would enable the reader to see, not merely what the regiment did, but how and why it was done. Though the result may be a history more or less broken, so far as the regiment alone is concerned, and at the same time only a meagre account of the campaigns as campaigns, yet I must take the risk of these objections. I think, upon the whole, that the plan I have chosen is better than any other. And I may add, lest it should seem presumptuous, my undertaking to write history, that very largely the book is really a record of what I saw and knew, since I was in the regiment from the first enlistments to the last muster-out, and was a part of nearly all its service.

It will not surprise me if my readers find minor errors. The work has all been done under serious difficulties as to time. Such irregular and uncertain hours as could be taken of evenings and holidays, in the midst of the engagements of an active professional life, are nearly all it has received. Though this does not excuse faults, I hope it may be received as an apology for them.

Yet I have tried carefully to confirm or correct every material statement by contemporaneous papers, official and private, by the printed official reports and other books, and by a large correspondence with the surviving actors. Officers and soldiers of all ranks, not only

PREFACE. xiii

of my own command, but of many others, have aided me gladly and with great industry, so many, indeed, that I could not name them here in acknowledgment without making a list that would seem too long. But I must not omit to mention two gentlemen who, though having no part in any of the events of the book, have given me specially valuable help : Col. Ephraim C. Dawes, of Cincinnati, whose very remarkable library of the war I have freely used, and Major Joseph W Kirkley, of the War Records Office, whose researches for me have supplied many gaps and settled many questions. For the maps and battle-plans I am responsible alone, except the very excellent one of Selma, which was originally made by Captain Noyes, now Lieutenant- Colonel in the Fifth United States Cavalry. That one was verified, and those of Bear Creek, Brice's Cross-roads, Big Blue, Marais des Cygnes, and Columbus, were sketched on the ground since the war.

Wm. Foese Scott.

New York, November, 1892.

Introduction

" The Stoey of a Cavaley Regiment ?1 is the record of the Fourth Iowa in the war of the Rebellion.

In the beginning of that conflict the commanders of Union armies appeared neither to value nor to understand this arm of the service. From Alexander to Frederick, as all students of history know, the great soldiers won their greatest victories with cavalry. But the increasing range of modern musketry, and later the invention of breech-loading and magazine guns, by making continuous long-range fire possible, destroyed the power of horsemen to break squares and masses of trained infantry. By this change the cavalry service suffered unduly in the estimation of incompetent generals, who, unfortunately, were numerous in the early period of the war.

The people of the North, ignorant of military operations, regarded with superstitious and undiscriminating deference all men of military education or experience , and, accordingly, such men were often overweighted with the responsibilities of high command. There was even a time when honest patriots spoke of the able organizer and popular drill-master of the Army of the Potomac as a probable dictator ; and bitter lessons were required to teach the President and the people that xvi INTRODUCTION.

military education cannot make a soldier. Inapt cadets, who remained incapable of command though graduated at West Point, were a hindrance rather than a help, by reason of the undue reliance placed upon their merely technical training ; and yet officers of this class were outnumbered by those appointed from the politicians, who, though often uniting natural unfitness to a total lack of military training, were yet rewarded or conciliated with high commissions to command the volunteers.

In neither of these classes were there any but the dimmest ideas of the use of cavalry. They employed it actively, it is true, but destructively and without any effective results, making it very costly to the government and very demoralizing to the men. New regiments, undrilled, undisciplined, and wretchedly armed, were broken up by details for escorts, to gratify the vanity of generals, for picketing permanent posts and infantry camps, and for courier and other services for which there should have been specially enlisted corps. Soldiers who marched on foot carrying their arms and accoutrements, seemed to feel their burdens lightened by gibes at the cavalry, whose horses covered them with dust or splashed them with mud, as they hurried their riders on worse than useless errands past the footsore columns.

Engineer officers, who, by reason of their standing at West Point, took high rank in the volunteer army, were predisposed to win victories with intrenching tools ; and this, with the hope of a speedy termination of the war, the long time supposed to be required for drilling cavalry, and the lack of competent leaders, kept the cavalry for years, with a few brilliant excep-

INTRODUCTION xvii

tions, in wasteful and degrading service, incessant but inglorious marches and petty conflicts.

A cavalry officer distinguished in the East, said, in 1865 : "With eighty thousand cavalry on the rolls in the winter of 1862, the Army of the Potomac was kept so deplorably deficient in that arm as to be unable to ascertain what the enemy were doing at Fairfax and Manassas, or to raise the blockade of the Potomac ; and the rebels had finally moved away from those places in the spring before our army had started in pursuit. Does any one now assert that those obstacles could not have been overcome by twenty thousand cavalry ? " Grant himself, after two years' experience in the field, and when there were a hundred regiments of cavalry west of the Alleghanies, went into the campaign of Vicksburg and half way through the siege with only one regiment (the Fourth Iowa) and a few small detachments, the result being the waste of half the men and most of the horses from mere excess of exertion. Even as late as the beginning; of the last campaign of the war, a certain famous old division and corps general quarrelled with Wilson, because that able cavalryman refused to break up one of his brigades to supply the usual escorts to brigadiers and outposts for infantry camps.

The true uses of cavalry were not understood, its capabilities were not seen. It was only after " escorts " and " body-guards " had passed out of view with the " show generals," after length of service had formed in each comma';;1 .„ corps of veterans to assimilate recruits, after contact with the enemy had brought out leaders, and after the few real generals had been taught by experience to mass this arm and let it fight, that the xviii INTRODUCTION

Federal cavalry won its place and made its record. Then it compelled recognition from our best commanders, as the most difficult, the most delicate, the most flexible, the most effective arm of the service. General Sherman well said that it required greater ability to command ten thousand cavalry than fifty thousand infantry

In the last year of the war, Sheridan in the Valley and Wilson in Tennessee and Alabama showed how simple and easy it is to make of cavalrymen soldiers as effective as any, and far more effective for some purposes than infantry could be. Yet there was no magic in the methods of these brilliant leaders, nothing but the conviction that if you want volunteers to be soldiers you must treat them as soldiers: hold them together, train them, fight them together, and lead them — that is all.

So, with opportunity and proven leaders, the cavalry quickly proved itself. Stretched across the breadth of the continent, its imperfect organizations quickened with new life. Order dwelt in its camps. Confidence marched with its columns. The resistless spirit of Freedom moved with its charging squadrons. It did its part, but it has not yet found its historian. Its deeds have not yet been written. They are not easy to believe. It fought with equals. Confederate soldiers have had no superiors since wars began. Yet the achievements of the Federal cavalry during the last two years of the war surpass the romances of chivalry, and make them read like tales told for the nursery.

The time for jeers had passed, the time for cheers had come. The tired foot-soldiers, " marching towards great events," called out at night, "Here comes the

INTRODUCTION xlx

cavalry ! " and slept upon the ground, curtained from danger by its sleepless sentinels. At dawn he heard its advanced guns challenge the enemy to combat. In the stress and strain of battle he saw electric tremors in the opposing ranks, then heard the muffled thunder of the horsemen's charge. He knew the foemen's flank was broken and his front must yield. There were cheers now, and not jeers, for the cavalry.

The story of this regiment, were it not proven, would appear incredible. Much reading of the deeds of the different arms in other wars finds nothing to surpass the endurance in marching, or the dash and courage in fighting, displayed by the Fourth Iowa Cavalry after the beginning of the Vicksburg campaign under Grant. The raid from Vicksburg to Memphis, the magnificent covering of the retreat of Sturgis from Guntown, the bold and marvellously successful initiative taken against odds at the battles of the Big Blue and the Osage, the pursuit of Price, and the storming of Columbus illustrate my meaning.

A hundred men of the Fourth Iowa, poorly armed and caught at a disadvantage when engaged in felling; trees,1 abruptly cut off from any aid and attacked by two regiments, obstinately resisted three charges and held their ground till surrounded, when they fought their way out with a loss of half their number. A thousand men of its brigade led Sherman's twenty thousand infantry and artillery from Vicksburg to Meridian,2 fighting for the road every day, often all the day, resisted at different times by five different brigades, but always keeping the road clear, so that the infantry and guns behind them made the whole distance, one hunxx INTRODUCTION

dred and eighty miles, in twelve days. On the open prairie of the Kansas border,1 this regiment threw itself against Price's line of many thousands, and by sheer audacity broke it, causing the rout of the two divisions by one brigade. At Columbus on the Chattahoochee,2 this regiment, with the Third Iowa, here numbering together hardly seven hundred, dismounted in the night and assaulted strong fortifications, defended by several thousand men with many guns (the plan and extent of the works being unknown even to their generals), and carried them by storm. Surely such men had in them the metal of soldiers.

Standing alone, the record of this regiment determines the superior effectiveness of cavalry over other arms on a wide field of action, where rapidity of movement and audacious energy achieve success. Had every Federal regiment done as much as this one did, the number of prisoners taken in arms would have exceeded the whole white population of the Confederacy, and the property taken and destroyed would have far exceeded in value all the property of every kind within its limits.

The rank and file of the regiment were chosen men. None others were retained. Pioneers and the sons of pioneers rode in its columns. Their strenuous lives on the frontier bred no false qualities of character, left few flaws in manhood. Courage with them was not a merit, but a consequence of character. Unconscious patriotism was a part of their existence. Their women would have scorned one who turned back from battle. They made history as they tilled their fields. They took back to the tasks of peace the silent heroism which had won victories in war.

INTRODUCTION. xxi

At their best they were commanded by a young volunteer who bore a name long honored in New England. Descent from Puritans carried conscience into his work. No detail of service escaped his attention, but his faculties rose with the occasion, and in action no emergency found him unprepared. He took blows stoically, but paid them back with compound interest when his time came to strike. His men got their dues, but they were always for duty- He was gentle by nature, but filled with the aggressiveness of the cause, and while he earned the love of his subordinates, he compelled the confidence of his superiors. His keen intelligence moulded the purpose of his men ; his will inspired them and made them think themselves invincible. Though his military education was gained in the field, and he was " only a volunteer," the qualities and the services of Winslow were such as upon larger fields made Sheridan and Wilson the first cavalry leaders of the Civil War.

His men showed no ambition but to do their duty. The writer of their story has shown no ambition but to tell plainly how they did it. He was himself a part of what he writes about. The experiences of his comrades were common to other regiments, but under his hand their achievements have been taken by the imperishable types and made their own forever. In intervals of time borrowed from clients and taken from needed rest, their " Boy Adjutant " has told us the story of their toils and dangers and sufferings through four years of war.

There should be many readers for this book. It is a picture of the Civil War in miniature. To read it will make " the generation which has grown up since xxii INTRODUCTION.

the war " think better of its fathers. Its praise is moderate and its censure just. A child can understand it, and a wise man will not lay it down unread. It will bring crowding memories and pleasures to all survivors of the volunteers. It will call up for them hunger and thirst, burning heat and biting cold, storm and flood, fevers and aching wounds — remembered, but unf elt, — all in the past ; and in the present, growing joy, ever growing blessings, gained by their sacrifice. They see perpetual union of the States, cemented by the blood of those who fell on either side ; no strife now but the peaceful strife of commerce and the rivalry of civic virtues. They see common efforts, hopes, and ambitions, born of mutual respect learned in the field, building prosperity for all the people.

These are worthy teachings. Historians find the best materials in such books. They are reservoirs of fact kept pure from prejudice. The truth is in them. Like deep springs among the hills, which yield refreshment while they mirror their surroundings, such books show forth the form and spirit of heroic days, and nourish patriotism while they give a soul to history.

O. H. La Grange.

New York, jth March, 1892.

BADGE OF WILSON'S CORPS.

OFFICIALLY, THE CAVALRY CORPS OF THE MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI. ';

There 's nothing finer in the world, —

Oh, nothing half so fast, When we hussars rush down the field

And into the fight at last !

Our carbines crash, the ringing skies

With flashing flames are rosy red, The wild blood flies in our dancing eyes, —

Oh, then we 're roaring glad !

And if in death among us fall

Our comrades ready and true, Of that we Ye nothing more to say,

But that toe Ye ready too.

Low on the ground the body lies,

The shattered shell to earth is given ; But the free soid flies thro1 the ringing skies

Up to the tent of heaven.

From an old German Hussar Song.

m ° p-

THE STORY OF A CAVALRY REGIMENT

CHAPTEE I.

ORGANIZATION AND EQUIPMENT.

When the sound of the guns at Fort Sumter reached Iowa that State was instantly in arms. In one day twenty times as many men as were called from it by President Lincoln's first proclamation offered themselves to Governor Kirkwood. These first volunteers lived mostly in the eastern counties. It was a new State. Over nearly the whole of it travelling was still done by stage-coach. The only railways were the beginnings of three single-track lines, running from Davenport, Burlington, and Keokuk, then operating only sixty or seventy miles each. Telegraph lines were few in number and little more extended than the railways. The western half of the State was but thinly inhabited. Indeed, large quantities of public lands were still awaiting "preemption." Many county-seats, which are now thriving towns or cities, then contained hardly more than a court-house and a school-house, planted in the open prairie, the high wild grass waving up to their doors.

Into these newer parts of the State the news of the war came slowly. The offers of companies of volunteers to the Governor were sometimes late in reaching him; and the accepted companies, moving by stages and on horses to the places appointed for rendezvous, sometimes found, on arriving, that * the regiments to which they had been assigned were already filled. This was the experience of two companies, one from Fremont County, the southwesternmost county, and one from Delaware County, in the northeastern part of the State. They were raised and offered for the Second Iowa Cavalry, then being organized in Camp McClellan, near Davenport. They were accepted for that regiment and ordered to the camp, but when they reached it, early in September, 1861, the Second Eegiment was full and on its way to the field. It is not easy to realize now the fact that one of these companies (the one from Fremont County) spent, necessarily, ten days on its way from home to Davenport, the only means of transportation as far as Marengo (260 miles) being farm wagons and saddle horses. The Third Cavalry was then going into camp at Keokuk, but the full number of companies had already been accepted for it.

The two companies were greatly disappointed, and when it was reported that no more cavalry would be accepted from Iowa, to their disappointment was added discontent.1 They remained in Camp McClellan day after day, week after week, in suspense, the officers constantly in communication with the Governor and

1 The War Department was of opinion that three cavalry regiments were more than enough from Iowa, and insisted that any further enlistments should be in the infantry. But the State furnished nine regiments of cavalry as well as some companies in regiments of other States.

the Adjutant-General, hoping that another regiment of cavalry would be ordered into camp, and the men zealously discussing every rumor and suggestion, no matter how slight or absurd, which related to their becoming a part of the army. Several regiments of infantry were then being formed in Camp McClellan, and efforts were made to induce the men of the two companies to join them, but there was no success ; they had set out to be cavalrymen. The discontent became so serious at last that Governor Kirkwood visited the camp and made a speech to the men. He promised to find place for them. At the same time James Harlan, then United States Senator from Iowa and afterward Secretary of the Interior in Lincoln's Cabinet, urged the War Department to authorize the raising of another regiment of cavalry in Iowa. Mr. Harlan pressed upon the Secretary of War his opinion that the best cavalry could be made of Western men, who were accustomed to riding and the care of horses. In Iowa at that time, as in other Northern states, the people were begging the government to accept more troops. Special authority was finally given by the War Department, in a letter from Secretary Stanton to Governor Kirkwood, dated October 12, 1861, authorizing the raising of a fourth regiment of cavalry in Iowa, to be rendezvoused at Mount Pleasant. At the personal request of Mr. Harlan there was inserted in this order the unusual provision, that the horses of the regiment should be purchased at the place of rendezvous, under the immediate direction of the colonel. Governor Kirkwood ordered the two companies to proceed to Mount Pleasant and go into camp as the nucleus of the Fourth Cavalry; and, in consideration of their age and persistence, they were to have the honor of being " Company A" and "Company B," and of holding, respectively, the " right " and the " left " of the regimental line. The Fremont County company was " A " and the Delaware County company " B."

They moved at once from Davenport to Burlington, by the steamboat Kate Oassell, and thence by rail to Mount Pleasant, where they arrived before daybreak October 17, 1861. They went immediately to "Camp Harlan," so named in honor of the senator. The camp was then only an open meadow, lying west of the town, where there were piles of lumber provided for building barracks. The frames for two company buildings were then being raised by carpenters. The weather was fine, the question of getting into the army appeared to be definitely settled, and the men went to work on the barracks with great spirit.

Indeed, there was nothing else for them to do. They had no arms, no equipments, no clothing, except what they had themselves provided, not even a sufficient supply of blankets. But the people of Mount Pleasant were burning with zeal in the cause, and they permitted no one to be uncomfortable. It was exceedingly difficult then, especially in the "Western states, to get military equipments, and it was hardly expected that the regiment would be equipped and instructed sufficiently for service in the field before the coming on of cold weather. The nights were already cold. The barracks, therefore, although only close sheds of rough pine boards, were built as snugly as time permitted. Those for the companies were each about eighty feet long and twenty wide, and high enough for three tiers of double berths, or " bunks," between the floor and the eaves. There was a door in each end, a window in the middle of each side, and a floor of rough boards. A small shed against the rear end was the kitchen. Twelve of these buildings, one for each company, stood side by side, facing south, with intervals of about twenty feet, except that between the sixth and seventh the space was wide enough to admit a building of similar plan, but of smaller size, for the use of the musicians — the " Regimental Band." In the rear of the barracks were the stables, very long, low sheds, closed on one side, one for each company and one for the field-and-staff.

In front of these barracks, on the other side of a parade ground about fifty yards wide, were smaller barracks of similar construction, the quarters of the officers and non-commissioned officers of the field-and-staff.

Excellent water was supplied from Swan's Spring, a famous spring near the Swan farm-house, just beyond the northwest corner of the camp-ground. It was carried by the volunteers, in big iron camp-kettles, hooked one at each end of a wooden yoke fitted to the shoulders. In 1890 the site of Camp Harlan is still an open field, and that fine spring still supplies a Swan family living in the same old farm-house.

Other companies closely followed A and B into the camp, each company being immediately employed in building and fitting up its own barracks. As the numbers increased and the barracks approached completion, the camp became a very busy place, and the work of filling and organizing the regiment went on Avith increasing zeal

Company A was formed at Sidney, in Fremont

County, late in July, 1861, of men of Fremont, Page, and Mills counties. It was sworn into the State service, under the Governor's acceptance, for the Second Cavalry, August 10th, and went into camp at Sidney, August 26th. The Page County men, enlisted by J. Marshall Rust and Samuel P Kelly, being unable to attend the meeting at Sidney on the 10th of August, were sworn in at Hawleyville August 9th, so that they could be reported at Sidney as enlisted, thus becoming the first men enlisted of the Fourth Iowa Cavalry. The company moved from the Sidney camp September 5th, under orders to proceed to Camp McClellan, at Davenport. Its further movement to Camp Harlan has already been mentioned. Its first officers were Captain Benjamin Rector, First-Lieutenant John Guylee, Second-Lieutenant J. Marshall Rust.

Company B was formed at Delhi, in Delaware County, the last of August, and arrived at Davenport about the 5th of September. From there it went to Mount Pleasant with Company A, as already told. Its first officers were Captain John H. Peters, First- Lieutenant George B. Parsons, Second-Lieutenant Alonzo Clark.

Company C was raised at Mount Pleasant, and was composed almost entirely of men living in that county — Henry. Its first officers were Captain Orrin Miller, First-Lieutenant Henry E. Winslow, Second-Lieutenant James Patterson. It went into Camp Harlan October 25th.

Company D was also of Henry County. It was organized as a militia company, September 1, 1861. Its first officers in the militia and in the Fourth Cavalry were Captain Cornelius F. Spearman, First-Lieutenant

Erasmus Coiner, Second-Lieutenant John Tucker. It marched into Camp Harlan October 21st.

Company E was formed at Grinnell, in Poweshiek County, though individuals and squads of its men joined from neighboring counties. It grew out of a company which gathered at Grinnell to join a regiment of "Mounted Rifles." There was an effort made to organize such a regiment at Iowa City ; but authority from the War Department could not be obtained, and the undertaking failed. The first ofiicers of E were Captain Alonzo B. Parkell, First-Lieutenant Orson N. Perkins, Second-Lieutenant Edward W Dee. It was quartered in the camp in October.

Company F was begun at Ottumwa, in Wapello County, but many of its men came from Mahaska and Henry counties. It was largely recruited in September, but was not filled till November, at Camp Harlan. Its first ofiicers were Captain Edward F. Winslow, First-Lieutenant Thomas J. Zollars, Second-Lieutenant William A. Heacock.

Company G obtained most of its members from Lee County, but some joined from other counties after the main body reached Camp Harlan, which was in November. The first officers were Captain Thomas C. Tullis, First-Lieutenant James Brown, Second-Lieutenant Simon Hooper.

Company H was mostly from Mitchell and Chickasaw counties, though Floyd, Johnson, Bremer, Howard and Iowa counties were represented in it. The men reached Camp Harlan about the 1st of November, and the company was there organized. Its first officers were Captain Dewitt C. Crawford, First-Lieutenant Samuel S. Troy, Second-Lieutenant Edwin A. Haskell.

Company I was formed at Winterset, in Madison County, its men coming from that county and from Adair and Guthrie. Its first officers were Captain William Pursel, First-Lieutenant Jesse E. Lambert, Second-Lieutenant John Overmyer. The larger part of it was in Camp Harlan early in November.

Company K was another Henry County company. It was in the camp before the end of October, choosing for officers, Captain James T. Drummond, First-Lieutenant Jacob Hart, Second-Lieutenant Joshua Gardner.

Company L had a career before it came to Mount Pleasant. A company of men was collected in Des Moines and other counties, who, in October, went into quarters at Burlington, as " Pleyel's Lancers." This was a proposed regiment of horsemen who were to carry lances instead of sabres. A German officer named Pleyel had undertaken to raise the regiment, but, when several companies were in rendezvous at Burlington, the scheme was abandoned, either because it lacked official sanction or because there were not enough men who wanted to carry lances. The men dispersed, and a number of them, led by "William E. Harris, were, at their own request, attached to the Fourth Cavalry. In November they arrived in Camp Harlan, where they were joined by others and formed Company L. The first officers were Captain William E. Harris, First-Lieutenant William H. Sells, Second- Lieutenant William W Woods.