The 5th Iowa and the Battle of Iuka

One of the bloodier, yet little discussed, engagements of the war in the West is the Battle of Iuka. Situated in northeast Mississippi, the town was a stone's thrown from the Tennessee River and the Alabama-Mississippi state line, and about 20 miles east of the recent Federal bastion of Corinth. Fought on September 19, 1862, the fight was "accidentally" a lot smaller than anticipated. Due to some sort of communication error, or something from an "acoustic shadow" (that debate will not be discussed in this post), Grant and Rosecrans failed to spring their trap on the isolated Sterling Price which resulted in a disappointing victory. In the midst of the ferocious melee, the 5th Iowa was positioned on the Federal right flank in support of the 11th Ohio Battery. The Iowans heroically and stubbornly held their ground until their ammunition was totally exhausted. Unfortunately, the ground where the regiment fought so hard against Louisianans, Texans, and Mississippians is mostly lost to development.

In the ranks of the 5th Iowa was John Quincy Adams Campbell. His diary (which can be purchased HERE) gives us fantastic access into the mind of a thinker and writer. In his later war life, Campbell became the editor of the Bellafontaine Republican in Ohio, which, unsurprisingly, featured a story of his own regiment and its deeds forty years before.

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The Fortieth Anniversary of the Battle of Iuka

Desperate Fighting, With Important Results to the Union Cause.

The Most Hotly Contested Battle in Which We Were Ever Engaged.

By JQA Campbell

It is not an unworthy pride that cherishes the memory of one's most important service of his country. In the Battle of Iuka, Miss., in which was fought just forty years ago today, Friday, Sept. 19, 1862, it was our fortune as a member of the 5th Iowa Infantry to have a place in the line of Battle. Our regiment was in the front to do the skirmishing and drive back the rebel skirmishers for four miles; was the first to form the line of Battle; was at the pivotal point in the Battle; Lost more than twice the men that any other regiment lost; held its position by the most desperate fighting till it had lost 49 percent of its men; kept its place till darkness fell upon the field, until the men had used all their ammunition, and were using the cartridges of their dead comrades; and when ordered back to the ammunition wagons to replenish their cartridge boxes, were then ready with their thinned ranks to march again into the Battle had not darkness stopped the fighting. Having been in the Battle from start to finish we have always felt an humble pride in the record our regiments made, and feeling that the character of the Battle, and even the Battle itself has been but little known, having been overshadowed by the great battles of the war, we give the following account of it, hoping it may interest our readers:

In the Fall of 1862, disaster attended the Union arms, and great concern for the Union cause was felt by the nation. Gen. Grant, in his Memoirs, says: "This was the most anxious period of the war to me," and "Many loyal people despaired in the Fall of 1862 of ever saving the Union." The army of McClellan had at this time fallen back from in front of Richmond to the defense of Washington, and the Army of the Ohio under Buell had been compelled by Bragg to fall back from the Tennessee to the Ohio. It was under these circumstances that Grant's forces fought the Battle of Iuka, and by defeating the Confederates there and at Corinth, he was enabled to retain his advanced position on the Mississippi border. While the Union forces in the other departments were forced back to the base from which they started in the Summer of 1861.

It was under these conditions, that Grant and Rosecrans, moving upon Iuka, on the roads from the west and southwest, sought to catch the Confederate General Price in a trap, and capture his whole force. Price was completely surprised, but the plans of Grant and Rosecrans failed of the complete success intended, because each waiting for and not hearing from the other, when they got near Iuka, failed to attack with vigor, and Price, after defeat, escaped in the night with his defeated army.

Price's army lay in front of Grant's force on the west of Iuka. Learning with surprise of the force of Rosecrans advancing upon the town from the south, Price double-quicked three brigades back through the town, and throwing them against Rosecrans' front, checked his advance till dark, and then escaped with his force, after the battle, under cover of the darkness. The forces of the two armies were about equal, 16,000; but less than one-third of either army, however, was engaged in the battle. Grant, with 8,000 men, lay idle four miles west of the town, while Rosecrans let one of his two brigades fight three brigades of rebels, when he could have crushed them and captured Price's army by promptly bringing his whole force into action.

The Battle, on the Union side, was fought by seven regiments out of the sixteen that constituted Rosecran's force. It was really fought by three regiments, four companies and one battery, the others who suffered loss being in support, and not in the fighting line. Not 3,000 men were in the fight on the Union side, and these met a Confederate force of 4,500.

After the battle opened, the Confederates had no battery engaged. On the Union side the 11th Ohio battery stood the brunt of the fight, and Lost more than half its men, killed and wounded--losing more men than any batter in any other single battle of the war. The men, despite this carnage, stood to their work, and fired their double-shotted guns upon the charging Confederates till the latter swarmed upon them and shot them down at their guns.

The heaviest fighting occurred around this battery. The 5th Iowa, upon its right, the 48th Indiana on its left, and four companies of the 26th Missouri in its immediate rear, held their position for over an hour, till darkness fell upon the field and the battle ended. The losses of the battery, and of these two regiments and a part of a regiment, were 485 out of a total loss of all the Union forces engaged of 689--or more than two-thirds of the total loss.

Col. Sanborn, who commanded the brigade said in his report: "There was no alternative but for the battery and these regiments to fight the battle out with nearly the whole force of the enemy concentrated on that point, and nobly did they do this."

The percentage of loss was probably as great in the battery and in the four companies of the 26th Missouri as in the 5th Iowa. The loss of the 5th Iowa was more than double that of any other regiment engaged. This was because it was on the right flank of the Union line, and was joined hard on the batter, and the Confederates made a desperate effort to capture the battery and turn the flank of the Union line.

The losses of the different Union forces were as follows:

The heavy losses of the Union forces were met by heavier losses on the Confederate side. While the Union losses were 689-140 being killed, Price left 265 dead on the field, and 120 died of wounds in the hospital at Iuka, and 242 were left in the Iuka hospital severely wounded, making 727. The slightly wounded, who escaped with Price, would more than equal this, and make his losses 1,500 beside the 361 prisoners taken. In addition to this he must have lost more than 1,000 by desertion, for his reports show a loss of 3,000 during the week, and he was in no other battle.

The 5th Iowa lost 49 per cent of the men it had in line. The severity of this can be seen from the fact that in the famous charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava, the British regiment lost less than 37 per cent.

Buena Vista, was the hardest fought Battle of the Mexican war--the American troops fighting four times their number of Mexicans for two days. The valor of the American troops upon that field, was considered so great that it gave Pap Thomas, Sherman, Jeff Davis and Bragg national reputation, and they became leaders in the Civil War, while Gen. Taylor, the American commander, was made President of our country. But the American loss at Buena Vista was only 77 killed and wounded out of 5,000 engaged, in two days' fighting, while at Iuka, the Union side lost 661--only 56 less--out of a force engaged of less than 3,000 in a little more than an hour.

At the Battle of Franklin, one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, the 44th Missouri, that suffered the heaviest loss of all the Union regiments in that battle, lost but 163, while the 5th Iowa lost 217 at Iuka. And when it is noted that the 26th Missouri and the battery suffered as great a percentage of loss as the 5th Iowa, it will be seen that around that battery was done some of the most desperate fighting of the war.

All through this battle the Union and Confederate lines fought at less than 50 yards apart, and yet in the face of the terriffic [sic] fire at such short range, both sides held their own for over an hour, fighting as Gen. Rosecrans said in his report "with a valor seldom equalled [sic] never excelled."

From the time of the opening fire, we "fired at will," at times charging and meeting charge, sometimes coming to within a dozen places of each other, and amide the deafening roar of Battle, the men won the victory, despite the lack of generalship, by a splendid display of American valor. And as the fire and smoke of Battle ascended from the field, where hundreds lay dead, it was as the smoke of sacrifice ascending from the altar of their country, whereon were lying the bodies of the patriot dead, who had given their lives that the Nation might live.

Of the Confederates, who have written and spoken of this battle, Gen. Mauten said it "was one of the fiercest and bloodiest conflicts of the war." Gen. Luke P. Blackburn, afterwards, Governor of Kentucky, said "our troops were met by as terrific a fire as was ever encountered," and Gen, Price spoke of it as "the hardest fought fight he had ever witnessed."

The gallantry of the 5th Iowa called out special commendations from Gen. Rosecrans, Gen. Hamilton and Gen. Sanborn, the Army, Division, and Brigade commanders, and complimentary letters from the Governor of Iowa, and from Gen. Schuyler Hamilton (grandson of the illustrious Alexander Hamilton) who had been its Division Commander earlier in the war.

The importance of the battle consisted in the fact that Price's defeat at Iuka resulted in the defeat of Price and Van Dorn at Corinth two weeks later, and enabled Grant to hold his position and complete the work of his department at the surrender of Vicksburg, a year and more before the Confederates were defeated in other departments; and enabled him to reinforce the Union armies in other departments, and lead those armies to final victory. Thus great results sometimes binge on comparatively or seemingly unimportant events or factors.

The Civil War was noted for its desperate fighting. There had been no modern war that approached it in this respect. And there was an average during the entire war of one battle, every ten hours wherein the Union forces engaged numbered over 500. There were a few battles that were more deadly than the average. The Battle of Iuka was one of these. There were some, where the percentage of losses was heavier than at Iuka--not many--but there was none where the valor shown by the rank and file on both sides was exceeded.

Sources:

[1] The Bellafontaine Republican (Ohio) September 19, 1902, 2.

[2] Grimsley. Mark and Todd D. Miller. The Union Must Stand: The Civil War Diary of John Quincy Adams Campbell, Fifth Iowa Volunteer Infantry. Knoxvule: University of Tennessee Press, 2000.

[3] "Iuka," American Battlefield Trust. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/iuka

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Derrick Lindow is an author, historian, teacher, and creator of the WTCW site. His first book, published by Savas Beatie, was released in Spring 2024. Go HERE to read more posts by Derrick and HERE to visit his personal page. Follow Derrick on different social media platforms (Instagram and Twitter) to get more Western Theater and Kentucky Civil War Content.