Recollections with the Third Iowa Regiment

by Seymour D. Thompson

If I have succeeded in making this book of interest to any reader, he will surely be unwilling to pardon me, if I do not go with my regiment briefly through the scenes which followed—its participation in what was the crowning glory to the army of the Tennessee, the siege and capture of Vicksburg, and where at Jackson my comrades fought for honor and without hope.

The transports conveying the 1st Brigade were convoyed by a gunboat of the musquito fleet. In the afternoon of the following day the gunboat had dropped behind and the Crescent City was in lead; while passing unconcernedly along near the foot of Island 65, a force of guerrillas opened upon it with two howitzers from a covert of young timber, throwing canister and shells. The first shots took effect, wounding thirteen men of the 3d Iowa, one of them mortally. To protect her machinery, the boat immediately refused her broadside and presented her stern. From this end of the boat, the boys began to reply with musketry, when the gunboat coming up, the guerrillas fled. The gunboat opened fire upon them, and the troops landed. The 41st and 53d Illinois pursued them two or three miles without overtaking them. When they returned, the brigade moved down the shore three miles to the town of Greenwood, which they set fire to and burned—house and hovel, sparing not even the church.

At noon the next day they arrived at Young's Point, disembarked, and, after cooking their dinners on the shore, started to march across the peninsula. After proceeding half a mile, they were halted, and waited for orders till ten o'clock at night. During the afternoon the scene around was inexpressibly sublime. They could see the shells of Porter's fleet from below bursting over the city, and the enemy's river batteries replying. While on the bluff above it, they could discern, under a dense cloud of smoke, Steele's infantry and artillery hotly engaged, as well as the smoke which rose from the enemy's forts on his front. The gunboat, Choctaw, also dropped down, for some reason, to draw the enemy's fire. His guns opened upon her heavily, and, when she had reached a position about half a mile below the red flags which marked the enemy's furthest range, she halted and lay in the channel but did not reply. Her guns were not of sufficient range to reach his batteries. As soon as the enemy saw her object, he ceased firing. Some of his shots in their flight had crossed the river, the peninsula and the river again, and lodged above the city on the Mississippi shore. During the night the scene was still more sublime. Signal rockets from the gunboats flashing against the sky, and the shells from the mortar fleet describing in their flight an immense curve of fire, making the noise of a distant wind storm, and bursting in fitful flashes over the doomed city. They could likewise see the flashes of Steele's artillery, and at times the flames leaping from the mouths of the enemy's responding cannon.

The brigade went aboard the boats in the night, and had all the baggage they were to take with them got aboard before midnight. The rest, comprising most of their tents and camp equipage, was left under a guard detailed for the purpose. That of the 3d Iowa was commanded by Lieut. Lakin.

At daylight their fleet moved into the mouth of the Yazoo where they found the Choctaw, which joined the musquito boat that had convoyed them from Memphis, and the two convoyed them to Haines' Bluff. The position was found to be evacuated, and Companies G and K of the 3d Iowa landed and occupied it. Here they found a rebel hospital, containing about 360 patients, who were paroled the following day. The brigade landed about a mile below to execute the purpose of the expedition, that of opening communication with Sherman. Meanwhile the crew of the Choctaw landed and commenced blowing up the enemy's numerous magazines and bursting the guns he had abandoned. Some of these magazines were filled with loaded shells, which were thrown into the air and exploded in all directions. In this way were destroyed an immense quantity of ordnance and ordnance stores, which might have been made serviceable to General Grant in the subsequent operations of the siege. But it was expected that Johnson would move in this way to attack Grant in the rear, and it was deemed more prudent to destroy them than to run the risk of their falling into his hands.

Our boys found here plenty of tents and camp equipage abandoned by the enemy, and supplied themselves even better than they were before. Gen. Lauman immediately went back to Young's Point on a dispatch boat for orders, and soon after the brigade marched from where it lay to a position on the bluff, where the two companies were, and here spent the night.

The next day was the memorable 22d of May, on which Grant made his second assault on the enemy's works. They could hear the sounds of the battle—on the right the infantry engaging with a continuous war, and with it the quick jar of the batteries, and above all the thunders of Porter's fleet. Of the cause of all this they knew nothing; but conjectured the army was forcing its way into the beleaguered city. That day the Choctaw and musquito boats went up the Yazoo as far as Greenwood, but could not pass the batteries there. The same evening the brigade was relieved by a cavalry division under command of Major General Washburne.

Next morning it moved toward Vicksburg to take position in the investing lines. As they advanced they met many supply wagons on the way to the Yazoo, the teamsters giving dolorous accounts of yesterday's repulse, and saying frequently, in the most discouraging tones, "Boys, we can't take 'em; they're too well fortified." As they approached the lines of the army they saw scattered through the woods many men who had been wounded in the previous day's fight; and many more in cotton sheds, crowded together on the soft cotton, as thick as they could be placed—men who had marched hither from Bruinsburg, without a change of clothing or a cooking utensil, dirty, ragged, and clotted with blood, lay under dense clouds of settling dust, raised by the troops and trains continually crowding past. It was a spectacle of wretchedness sufficient to appal common men. That night the 1st Brigade camped south of the Jackson Railroad, and about a mile and a half from Fort Hill, the rebel work which guarded the main entrance into the city. They were not allowed fires, and had to eat their raw bacon and hard crackers with the best relish they could.

On the 30th, they had out a strong force to protect their pioneer corps in constructing roads on which to bring up gabions to protect the rifle pits, to be constructed, from the enemy's flanking fire. That night their pickets advanced and drove those of the enemy from the hill they occupied. Here they dug their first line of rifle pits, a straight ditch, and in it inserted the gabions at intervals, with sufficient room for a single man to pass round them without getting out of the ditch. At daylight the enemy's artillery opened from What was known as the sand bag fort on the right, and speedily cleared the ditch of these obstructions, killing two men of the 41st Illinois. Of course this experiment was not again repeated.

That day our pickets protected themselves as well as they could. As soon as it was dark, Capt. Knight, of the 3d Iowa, crawling between the two picket lines, ours and the enemy's, made a survey of the ground which enabled them next morning to commence digging zigzag rifle pits, by which they were enabled to advance their line steadily, under protection from the enemy's fire, front and flank. They did not extend these rifle pits through the valleys, but, on gaining the slope of a hill towards the enemy, would drive him from his rifle pits on the opposite hill by a night assault, and, occupying them, change the embankment to the other side, and commence anew their operations. They deviated from this rule in but one instance. Thus, until the final surrender, with frequent artillery duels and sharp engagements of the infantry; laboring and watching night and day; exposed constantly to an alternation of burning sun and chilling dew; amid a succession of scenes the most unreal; where romance itself palled on the sense and became monotonous; amid hardships which, under ordinary circumstances, few would have endured, they forced their steady progress toward the enemy.