REGIMENT***


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RECOLLECTIONS WITH THE THIRD IOWA REGIMENT:

by

LIEUT. S. D. THOMPSON.







Cincinnati:
Published for the Author.
1864.

Entered according to Act of Congress,
in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-four, by
Lieut. S. D. Thompson
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the U. S.
for the Southern District of Ohio.




PREFACE.


At the solicitation of some of my comrades, the pages of this book
were for the most part compiled from a diary which I kept during most
of the two years I served with them, and which was written amid the
scenes it attempts to describe. To furnish them a faithful account of
the principal scenes through which they passed during this period,
including sketches of the operations in which they were engaged,
and of which our Regiment formed a part; a record of what they saw,
and did, and suffered, such as I thought they would like to read
in future days, has been my object in presenting it in this shape.
As it was written for my comrades, to them I dedicate it; and in
giving it to the public, I have only to say that if it suits them, it
suits me. With regard to facts which have since become history, to
which I have had occasion to refer, I may have committed some errors
and inaccuracies; my book was not written in the library of the
historian, but in the tent of the soldier, and with few exceptions
without other information than such as observation and report could
supply. In speaking of prominent officers under whom we served, I
have not forgotten that some of them are still my superior officers,
and that it in nowise comports with my duties as a soldier to assume
to be their historian or critic. But the time has come when the
conduct of those who have passed into civil life may be criticized
by those who were their inferiors in the military service. Of such
I have endeavored to speak honestly but _plainly_, remembering that
they dealt plainly with us.

I am under obligations to Col. Scott, 32d Iowa, Lieut. Chas. P.
Brown, A. A. Q. M., Fort Pickering, W. B. Lakin, Esq., College Hill,
Ohio, for valuable favors and assistance. I trust that time will
afford me opportunities of paying them in a better manner than by
this public acknowledgment.

And now I give these pages to the public, with the single regret that
the deeds of men who have so many titles to honor and gratitude could
not have been better recorded and by a more worthy hand.

            S. D. THOMPSON,
        FORT PICKERING, Memphis, Tenn., March, 1864.




CONTENTS.

                                                         Page.
  Preface                                                    3


  CHAPTER I.

  The "uprising" in Iowa--Patriotism of the people--The
  Third Regiment--Its character and composition--Spirit and
  ideas of its members--Our colonel--Our visit to Camp Ellsworth
  and the First Iowa--The Second and First Iowa advance into
  Missouri--Our quarters--Our ideas of our treatment--Poor
  fare, and what some of us "did about it"--Our duties--Complaints
  about pay--Our arms--We go into camp--Our first
  camp experience--We chafe exceedingly under the yoke of
  discipline--Marching orders                               13


  CHAPTER II.

  We break up camp at Keokuk--The parting occasion--The
  last lingering look--A pleasant steamboat ride--Two nights
  and a day at Hannibal--We advance by rail into the interior
  of Missouri--Dangers attending the movement--We halt at
  Chillicothe, Grand River bridge and Utica--Leaving the cars
  and camping for the night--Condition of the country--Our
  first night alarm--How we celebrated the Fourth of July--Our
  uniform--Our rations--Our discipline--Colonel Williams
  arrives and assumes command--Colonel Smith visits
  and consults with him--Another false alarm                29


  CHAPTER III.

  Operations of the rebel general Harris--Three companies
  of our regiment detailed to join an expedition against him--We
  are allowed ten minutes for preparation--We join a portion
  of the Sixteenth Illinois at Palmyra, and