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Photos by Allen Gathman |
The regimental banner, carried into battle on April 6, 1862, and shot to pieces, had been sewn by the women of Chariton and presented to the men of Company B just before they began the march from Lucas County to Burlington on July 8, 1861, to be mustered. You can read more about the departure ceremony here in a post entitled "July 8, 1861: Farewell to the Boys of Company B."
For these and other reasons, I was fascinated by a letter published in The Keokuk Daily Gate of May 6, 1862, that reported in detail on the 6th Iowa in combat a month earlier. The author was identified only as "Scribo," so we don't know who he was. But most likely he had been among the combatants.
It's unique for several reasons --- including its mention of the battle flag sewn by the women of Chariton. But especially so because it celebrates the common soldier --- the privates.
I found the illustrations used here online. This is a sign at the Shiloh Battlefield National Park in Tennessee that marks the original burial location of some of the 6th Iowa's dead. It is quite near the mass grave of rebel soldiers, also mentioned in the letter. Here's the text of the letter;
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In Camp Near Pittsburg, April 16th, 1862
The appetite for general news is partially sated, I presume, so far as the battle of Pittsburg is concerned, and perhaps details and incidents will now be sought after with some degree of interest. The strikers and blowers have had their chance, and each officer and every regiment has been sufficiently proved to have been "the bravest of the brave" and "in the hottest of the fight." Since all these factitious heroes have proclaimed, let me have a little space to tell the humble and simple tale of the 6th Iowa. Let me premise that I speak in behalf of the humblest private of the regiment as much as for the equally brave adorned with straps.
On that eventful Sunday morning, we occupied the extreme right of Sherman's Division --- this being at the same time the right of the advance of the army. The attack on Prentiss and on our left had penetrated our lines and the rebels were swarming into our camp by thousands before the order came for our brigade to retire. It had not as yet fired a gun, and just as it began to move, the left of enemy came up in force on our front, while those that had been successful in their early attack on our left were now moving briskly forward, flanking and almost cutting off the brigade.
Exposed to a galling cross fire of musketry and artillery, our men moved off in good order, got into a position directly across an open road, and there held the enemy in check for nearly three hours, leaving only after Gen. Sherman had three times ordered them to retire. The numbers against which they fought all this time were from five to seven times their own. They left fifty-one dead on the field and had 123 wounded. Among the dead were Capt. Iseminger, shot through the lungs with a musket ball, and Capt. White, killed almost instantly by a canon ball --- a six pound shot --- striking him in the bowels. They were both brave men and fell like soldiers. Capt. White lived to grasp the hand of Lieut Isett and say, "Good bye John; give my love to my wife."
Near where the 6th lay during those three bloody hours there is now a mound of newly raised earth under which lie in one huge pit the mortal remains of 147 rebels, a terrible witness of the precision and fatality of the work done by their trusty Springfield rifles. During the day one of the boys of Co. B was taken prisoner by the Mississippi Rifles --- the brag sharp-shooters of the rebel army. He made his escape, by some means, and tells how he was questioned to know what regiment that was whose firing was so deadly. They had never see anything equal to it, they said. At one time during the day a single well directed volley silenced a battery that had come within range. It is very probable that Gen. A. S. Johnston received the fatal bullet that ended his rebellious career from the rifle of one of our boys. He was shot during the time of which I am speaking and not more that 250 yards from where the 6th lay. They fired all of the time with the utmost coolness, many of them telling their officers that they did not intend to shoot without seeing what they were shooting at. But they were flanked on both sides at last, and Gen. Sherman, after ordering them three times to retire --- which they seemed too busy to do --- at last impatiently told them to "stay there and be cut to pieces if they would not get out of the way."
It was now nearly 3 o'clock p.m. They had been in line of battle since 4 in the morning. Like thousands of others at that time they retired in some haste --- but under command of Capt. Walden a large number went to the river and slaked their thirst, returned to help support those dreadful batteries which caused such rebel destruction and such rebel swearing, after 4 o'clock that evening --- before which they were repulsed on the right and left --- shadowing their exultant hopes with the gloomy doubt lest their work of today was to be destroyed by that of tomorrow.
On Monday the greater part of the regiment were fighting, but scattered through different commands --- some of them even with McCook and Nelson. I do not believe the annals of war can show a regiment that was never under fire before where fewer men flinched or failed to stand bravely up to their duty. Understand me, I am speaking for the privates of the regiment --- those forgotten heroes whose name never appear in bulletins and reports, and whose nameless graves are so often the inscriptionless monuments that, never the less, tell eloquently of heroic deeds.
I have mingled much with the men since that terrible time that took away from them nearly one-tenth of their numbers --- have grasped many a hand and felt that I was taking the hand of a hero --- tears have streamed from my eyes as I have looked on their old flag, with its broken staff and its tattered fabric, but nothing has awakened in me such admiration as their simple modesty and their freedom from swagger .... How many times I have received the answer, "I tried to do my duty." Only this and nothing more. I have not heard a single man boast of doing anything extraordinary --- have not heard one say that he killed a rebel --- but "I tried to do my duty." Such are the men of the Iowa 6th.
The officers --- most of them --- are deserving of praise, and they will get it through the proper channels, I presume. I have spoken what I knew of the men. I do not wish them to be forgotten. I know they are so much regarded as only the cheap material out of which reputations are constructed --- oftentimes for worthless and cowardly leaders. Even in this war, which is for individual freedom, which is fought to prove that men are "created equal," a little brief authority seems to brush aside these truths, old as the eternities, and seeks to tramp out the humanity of the man to make the machine called a soldier. They were not soldiers merely. It is not soldierly pride --- it is not esprit du corps that makes them fight with such resistless individualism, in spite of the blunders of brainless Generals. It is the manhood in them, and I thank God that it is so, for it shows that this struggle shall not be in vain, but like the rest of Bacon's philosophy, it shall be crowned with abundant "fruit." When such men are fighting for a country for themselves we need have no fears that they will not save the country and make it the home of a race worthy of them.
I could tell of many incidents for which you have not room or I the time. May be I will reproduce some of them in a chapter of personal experiences. I will only add that Our Regiment shows the highest number of "dead" of any regiment engaged in the battle of Pittsburg. (signed) Scribo
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Capt. Iseminger commanded Company B, 6th Iowa. Also killed in combat was the commander of Company K, Capt. Richard E. White, whose home was Rome in Henry County. Capt. White's final words were spoken to John H. Islett, of Wapello.
The remains of Iseminger were unidentifiable when recovered from their initial burial place and moved to Shiloh National Cemetery, so he is buried there among the unknowns. The remains of Capt. White were identified, however, and he rests in a marked grave.
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