4th Iowa Infantry History - Page 5

The Fourth Iowa was during the campaign led by McClernand against Arkansas Post and was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Burton. The regiment landed the 9th day of January, 1863, on the banks of the Arkansas river, below the rebel fort, out of range of their guns and began a march late in the evening through swamps and brush; the weather was cold and chilly and the entire night was occupied in surrounding the fort; when daylight appeared, the army had completely encircled the enemy’s defenses and without preparing a bite to eat, the men were ordered at sun up to advance on the rebel’s works. The Fourth soon found the rebel position strongly defended in their front by two batteries of 10 pound parrot guns, and strong entrenchments from which a vigorous fire was poured in upon the Fourth all day, but fortunately the Fourth were in a thickly wooded section and suffered but slight loss as by ther methods of fighting every man was expected to find cover where an opportunity offered itself. By 4 o'clock in the afternoon of the 10th of January, the Fourth had advanced so close to the enemy works that the sharp-shooters finally silenced the rebel guns by picking off every man who attempted to load or operate them. So when the order came to charge, 30,000 men in a solid line came on with a yell and the brave defenders ran up the white flag and surrendered their little army of 5,000.

The Fourth had lost all its baggage and most of its camp equipage in the repulse at Vicksburg, two weeks before, so the men had not had a change of clothing for nearly a month, and were literally covered with vermin. Seeing a camp kettle filled with boiling water, some men took off their wool shirts and boiled the life out of every grey back, and then hung them up on a stick at the fire to dry and the men went in search of something to eat. When they came back, nothing could be seen of the shirts except about six inches of the sleeves. They had fallen into the fire and were entirely consumed. Finding themself cold and shivering without a shirt, several started through the regiment on a hunt for shirts, but every comrade reported only one on hand and that one on their backs. Finally they heard of a man in one of the companies who had just returned from a furlough, and had the only knapsack in the regiment. Fortunately he had extra shirts and very cheerfully handed them out when he was told of the misfortunes.

On the return to the boats, the rain and sleet continued to pour down upon the unprotected heads, as they trudged upon their way. The march continued until 10 o'clock that night when the men came to the landing, but the boat had not arrived, so they were ordered to bivouac for the night. Tired and hungry they wrapped themselves in their blankets and laid down to rest, but "we were all so wet and cold we could not sleep" Marching all the night before, through swamps and in battle all day, with nothing to eat but hard bread and a chance cup of coffee and at last to lay down in their wet clothing after a long fatiguing march that night seemed more than the human body could possibly endure.

About midnight the rain changed to snow, and strange to say, the men soon fell asleep. The coming of snow seemed to shut out all the wind and cold. When the army rose in the morning the broad plantation which the army slept on was dotted over, as far as the eye could see, with spots of bare ground where the soldiers had laid under their covering of snow, "like so many cattle that had laid out at night in a snow storm." That morning the fence rails served a good purpose, "and the fire built of them warmed that army into life." Soon the boats appeared and the regiment was ordered to take the deck of the John J. Roe. The ship soon steamed down the river, but the decks of the boat were covered with ice which could not be removed and the motion of the boat "added to our discomfort by increasing the force of the cold winter winds from which we had no protection." That night the Fourth reached the Mississippi and it grew colder, some wood was obtained which was burnt in small pieces in the mens’ camp kettles on deck of the boat to warm the men’s hands and make coffee. An officer of the boat became alarmed for the safety of his craft, rushed up and began emptying the contents of the camp kettles overboard. The infantry men in turn seized him and had he not desisted would soon have "found himself in the muddy waters of the Mississippi." That night the men laid down to rest and the heat of everyone’s bodies drove the frost from the icy deck in spots where every man had laid, but when the regiment reached Young's Point opposite Vicksburg, of the 500 men present in the Fourth Iowa, 400 of the men were reported on the sick list.

In January, 1863, the Fourth was again in the army before Vicksburg, where for two months, were spent the darkest days of its service in the cypress swamps, under the frowning batteries of the enemy Toiling on the famous canal, struggling in mud and rain, lying in camp through that dreary winter, while Grant was working out the great problem of how to subdue the Rebel stronghold and open the Mississippi River. With Steele's Division, the Fourth embarked on steamers. On the 1st of February, 1863, General Grant, commanding the army in front of Vicksburg, made his appearance among the men of the Fourth and gave them confidence. The high water had broken the levee on the Mississippi side and overflowed the country for many miles and gave the federal boats an opportunity to go out for many miles inland. Gun boats accompanied transports far into the interior navigating Steel Bayou, Black Bayou, Deer Creek and the Big Sun Flower. These expeditions were sent out in the hope of reaching the Yazoo river above the impregnable position of Haines’ Bluffs, so that Vicksburg could be attacked in the rear, but every effort in that direction failed. No other man except Grant, would have undertaken a movement of so much peril. In many places trees had to be cut off under water to make a channel through dense forests and many of the boats came back minus their smoke stacks and otherwise damaged. Heavy details were then made to work further on the canal across the Peninsula opposite Vicksburg. The river front at Vicksburg was fortified for ten miles with guns of large caliber and it was believed that by cutting this canal through, the channel of the river would be directed and the fleet could pass through it and avoid the rebel forts. The work went on all through February and March, but the rebels discovering them at work planted a large gun on the opposite side of the river from the lower end of the canal and soon obtained complete range. Some men who happened to be standing near by watching the progress of the work on the canal the morning the guns opened fire recalled "and the way those big shells came crashing through the tree tops over our heads caused us to beat a hasty retreat to a point of safety."

The regiment was surprised one night when all were asleep, the levee had broken and the floods came in upon them, and they had to wade out through the cold muddy waters for half a mile to higher ground on the levees and stay there until daylight came to show them dry grounds on which to pitch their tents. A slight raise in the ground near the steamboat landing, offered a place for the camp, but the place turned out objectionable because the hospital boat came there every morning and unloaded the dead to be buried in the levees. Sometimes the rough boxes containing bodies of unfortunate comrades would be piled up 8 feet high awaiting burial. The interment was made by a detail every day, side by side they were buried in the levees.

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