4th Iowa Infantry History - Page 1

They having arrived, but in no sufficient quantity, the army was put in motion in the direction of Little Rock on the 18th of May. It was now two hundred miles distant from the terrains of the railroad whence it received regular supplies. The rain poured down daily; the country, in comparison of all other countries which the troops had seen, was "a dreary wilderness." Nevertheless, they trudged on through the mud and mire without murmuring, obtaining scanty supplies of food along the line of march, husbanding that which had been brought from the north for future exigencies, until the roads became absolutely impassable. The rains had made all this part of Arkansas a vast dismal swamp. And so the little army, on short rations, and scantily clothed, slowly waded its way back to Batesville, the capture of Little Rock, under these circumstances, being deemed impracticable. Having through great hardships again reached Batesville, the army went into camp, and there with such patience as could be mustered, awaited the improvement of the roads. During the halt here, the army was scattered about the country again, in such localities as could do best toward keeping the detachments from downright starvation.

During the latter part of June, the little army was concentrated at Jacksonport, near the junction of Black with White River. A rain of supplies had recently reached this place from the north, its guard having had incredible difficulties in convoying it through a wide extent of hostile country. Nor were the supplies sufficient in quantity to give the troops full rations for a single week. They had already suffered so from the want of rations, and had stripped the country roundabout for many miles so entirely bare of food, that there was not left, perhaps, a pig, a chicken, or a pound of meal, which could have been taken without the utmost injury to the inhabitants. On the 4th of July the starving army moved "in search of supplies," marching along the ban of White River, and hoping to meet other Union forces at Clarendon, a distant hundred miles from Jacksonport. Clarendon was duly reached, but the forces which had been stationed there were now withdrawn. The column then wheeled to the left, and after three more days of suffering from the scorching sun, hard marching, hunger, and thirst, came out of the wilderness, and found food, raiment, and rest, at Helena, on the 14th. Even Helena was gladly hailed by the famished and entirely ragged troops, with enthusiastic expressions of satisfaction. They had now been in the field for five and a half months , nearly all the time in that section of America which may well enough be regarded as what one soldier called:

"The heathendom of our land--a region whose physical aspects are uninviting and uninteresting, and whose inhabitants, for the most part, are rude, unlettered, unacquainted with law, and regardless of right; whose savage barbarities perpetrated upon aged Union men and defenseless women during the early stages of the rebellion, had in them only the quality of unmixed atrociousness." The great novelist of humanity has most appropriately placed the scene of her darkest pictures of slavery-- the avarice, the debauchery, the savagery of Legree, the murder of Uncle Tom--on the border of this gloomy region, the hither frontier of which was traversed by General Curtis's little army."

Curtis’s march through the wilderness of Arkansas was, on all accounts, one of the severest of the war.

A number of cotton speculators followed the advance of the Union army to reap rich harvest in getting possession of that staple. General Curtis, in attempting to control these rapacious speculators and use the cotton in a way to bring the greatest benefits to the government, made enemies of many influential men of wealth, who were looking solely to personal gain. Helena and the surrounding country had a large slave population. As the negroes came into the Union lines the commanding General found another serious problem confronting him. The government had adopted no settled policy to govern the action of the department commanders in the matter and each had to upon his own judgment.

Whilst the camp was near Helena, during this period, the regiment made a few expeditions into the country, which were of no great importance. Among these expeditions were: One, which purposed moving up the Arkansas River a considerable distance, but which failed of accomplishing its object, whatever that might have been, on account of the low stage of water; another, made near the close of November into Mississippi, as far as the railroad leading north from Granada, destroying the railroad for some distance. When the troops returned they brought with them large quantities of cotton, supplies, and many horses.

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