4th Iowa Infantry History - Page 2

During a considerable portion of the period in which the Fourth Iowa had its encampment at Helena, General Curtis was in command of the district. It was a time when new questions were perplexing, in their abstract phases, the minds of our statesmen, and presenting numberless difficulties in the way of their practical solution to the minds of our commanding officers. Perhaps there was no officer surrounded by more difficulties of the nature here referred to than General Curtis. His head-quarters were at a place which may fairly be described as the southwestern outpost. Beyond him, on the right of the Mississippi, lay a vast extent of territory in the undisputed possession of the insurgents. On the left of the Mississippi to the southeast, the rebels had everything their own way, holding without opposition the richest portions of the confederacy, abounding in wealth and military resources. Below him the enemy held Vicksburg, the key to the navigation of the great river, and laughed at the impotent attempts to deprive him of his advantage. But to the northward navigation was unobstructed, and the conquests of northern arms during the year had opened up a wide area of country to trade, which had theretofore for some time been hermetically sealed to the enterprise of our merchants and speculators. By this time there was a most profitable demand for the staple productions of the South, and Helena swarmed with those who were anxious to take advantage of it. The Treasury Department had established no rules governing trade in the districts recently conquered from the insurgents. The whole subject was in a state of confusion most sadly confounded, and decidedly uncomplimentary to the practical abilities of the authorities at the national capital. General Curtis was perforce compelled to assume jurisdiction over matters more properly cognizable by civil functionaries, or see his camps changed into markets for cotton and dens of thieves. Moreover, the negro question, notwithstanding the sensible solution which had early been given to it by Major-General Butler, was still, for all practical purposes, in a most chaotic and indeterminate state. Helena was surrounded by negroes, who, lately the slaves of men now waging war against the Union, were left in an undefined status by their fugacious masters; but who, themselves true to the Union, were certainly, on that account, entitled to respectful consideration, if not to army rations. In his practical solution of both questions--the cotton question and the negro question, that is, to put them briefly, General Curtis was guided by thoughtful wisdom, and the dictates of philanthropy and patriotism; but it was impossible for him to decide them wisely, philanthropically and patriotically, without incurring the displeasure of many who were both able and willing to inflict damage upon his reputation. His solution of the questions was very simple. He banished the crowds of speculators from his camps, leaving the business of cotton buying to a few gentlemen of character and standing, who had been recommended to him by the authorities at Washington; and, instead of supporting the negroes at the public expense, he gave them control over the cotton of their rebellious masters, which had been planted and cultivated by their own labors. This policy, so wise and just in itself, and which resulted so beneficially to the government, nevertheless received the emphatic opposition of large numbers who had crowded into Helena for the purpose of making hasty fortunes, and of all those army officers, both regular and volunteer, whose accomplishments in the matter of Christian civilization taught them to think considerably less of a human being of a dark color than of army mule, or horse of any color. His administration at Helena during this period was afterwards the subject of investigation by a military commission, over which Major-General McDowell presided; but its investigations, though of an ex-parte nature, entirely failed to connect General Curtis with any speculation, so that the President, Abraham Lincoln, was constrained to declare, with an emphasis unusual to his cautious nature; that there was not a word of evidence against him. This just conclusion came, indeed, too late to maintain the General in command of the Department of Missouri, to which he had been meanwhile assigned; but in time to preserve his reputation unsullied from the attacks of dissipated generals and trimming politicians who had assailed him. But, inasmuch as he had in the fall of 1861 assisted the same class of men to ruin General Fremont, he must have reflected, as he yielded his command to Schofield, that there is sometimes a degree of poetic justice to be observed in the affairs of men.

Meantime; however, and before the worst vicissitudes of fortune befell the General, for an administration whose wise and philanthropic measures should have secured for him the gratitude of the country and the thanks of the government, the little army which had so heroically followed him through victory and suffering in Arkansas, passed under the control of others. When he left Helena, the Fourth regiment bade him an affectionate farewell, destined to be the last during the war, "the men all joining in the ceremony with unaffected feeling."

The Vicksburg campaign opened in November when Grant established a base at Holly Springs, Mississippi, and prepared to move down the Yazoo River and on to Vicksburg. Sherman moved down the Mississippi to the mouth of the Yazoo, and up the Yazoo to Chickasaw Bluffs; on December 29, he attacked the Confederates at the Bluffs and was repulsed.

Grant's first attack on Vicksburg came from the north. On December 8, he instructed Sherman to take command of all the troops at Memphis, move with them down the river to Vicksburg, and, with the co-operation of the gunboat fleet, "proceed to the reduction of that place in such manner as circumstances and your own judgment may desire." The preparations, writes Sherman, "were necessarily hasty"; as it turned out he had inadequate forces for the task assigned him. His plan was to move on Vicksburg from Cape Bayou, off the Yazoo River, and attack at Chickasaw Bluffs, located just north of the town.

4th Infantry Fighting Hawkeye's Page

(Send this page to a Friend)     ( Roster Photo's )

If you have any additional information that you would like to add to this page or other pages and share with

visitors of on this web site, please contact