Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/147

 was not appreciated by the Nation at large. Grant’s armies form the beginning of his great career, were composed entirely of western troops, and were made up largely, to the close of his Vicksburg campaign, of Illinois and Iowa volunteers. Iowa soldiers had won fame in all of his battles and campaigns. Belmont, Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Iuka, Corinth, Champion’s Hill and Vicksburg were inscribed on their banners; with such victories, and no serious defeats up to this time, no such feelings of depression pervaded the West as had prevailed in the East previous to the victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. In the West our armies had generally been successful. Before the middle of July, 1863, we had opened the Mississippi River to New Orleans, driven the Confederate armies out of Missouri, Kentucky, the greater portion of Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. In addition to the many thousand Confederate soldiers killed and wounded in battle, our armies had taken more than 50,000 prisoners. This progress in the West had inspired a confidence among its citizens in the final overthrow of the Rebellion, which had never been seriously shaken by the disasters to the eastern armies. From the beginning to the end of the war no Iowa regiments were in the Army of the Potomac, although we had many regiments with Sheridan in his campaign of the Shenandoah Valley, when he won the brilliant victories of Opequan, Fisher’s Hill and Cedar Creek, in the fall of 1864.

On the 17th of October, 1863, the President issued a call for 300,000 volunteers to serve three years, if the war should last so long. This call was made necessary owing to the fact that the term of service of a large number of men now in the army would expire during the year 1864. Iowa again raised its quota with volunteers, without resort to a draft.

The Tenth General Assembly convened at Des Moines on the 11th of January, 1864. The Senate was called order by Lieutenant-Governor Needham. The House was