MAJ. ABEL C. ROBERTS.
Surgeon 21st Regiment Missouri Inf. Vet. Vols.
President 21st Missouri Inf. Vet. Vols. Association.
From Meridian, Miss., the regiment was sent back to Vicksburg, returning by the way of Canton, reaching there on March 4th, where most of the regiment re-enlisted for three years more, or till the war was ended. At Meridian and on the trip back our army destroyed some forty miles of railroad and inflicted other damages on the enemy.
Returning to Vicksburg the veterans re-enlisting were granted a thirty days’ furlough. There was a happy home-coming for these scarred warriors of the 21st, who had, by their gallant services, well earned their holiday. But there was quite a number of the 21st, about two hundred and fifty, who failed to enlist as veterans under the holiday offer. These were assigned to Gen. Banks’ army and took part in what is known to history as the Red River Campaign.
THE RED RIVER CAMPAIGN.
Seventy Days of Almost Uninterrupted Fighting, When the Singing of the Bullets was the Only Music Heard from Morning till Night.—General Banks Criticised.—How General Smith’s Division Became Known as Smith’s Guerrillas.—Fighting A. J. Smith.—General Banks Anxious to Get Back to New Orleans.
A Graphic Account of the Campaign told by T. W. Holman.
ABOUT the 5th of March, the regiment having returned to Vicksburg from the Meridian Campaign, the veterans were sent home on a thirty days’ furlough. Those of the regiment who did not re-enlist, about one hundred, and about one hundred and forty recruits, were assigned to the 24th Missouri for duty. The 24th Missouri belonged to Col. Shaw’s brigade and was designated the 2d Brigade, 3d Division, 16th Corps, and was composed of the following named regiments: The 14th, 27th and 32d Iowa, and 24th Missouri, with the detachment of the 21st Missouri. The 21st Missouri men were consolidated and made three companies, about eighty men to the company. There being no commissioned officers with us, Lieuts. Denny, Yarbrough and Shadel, officers of the 24th, were assigned to command the three companies of the 21st.