Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/199

 CHAPTER X

THIRD IOWA INFANTRY

HIS regiment was raised in May and June, 1861, and was made up of the companies enlisted in the counties of Dubuque, Marion, Clayton, Winneshiek, Story, Fayette, Warren, Mahaska and Black Hawk. There were, however, men from various other counties in this regiment, which numbered nine hundred and seventy men, and went into camp at Keokuk. Nelson G. Williams was appointed colonel; John Scott, lieutenant-colonel; William M. Stone, major; and Fitzroy Sessions, adjutant. After drilling at Keokuk for about a month, the Third was sent to Hannibal, Missouri, where the regiment was scattered, companies being sent to various places to guard towns and railroads. Colonel Williams was not popular with a portion of the regiment, as there had been a long and bitter strife in the choice of field officers, and the commissions had been issued when the regiment was sent to Missouri. The men went into service without equipments and were armed with old Springfield muskets of 1848 pattern. Seven companies were stationed at Chillicothe and three at another point. Lieutenant-Colonel Scott, with a portion of the regiment, was sent to Macon in August, in pursuit of the Rebel General Green; Colonel Williams, with another portion and six companies of a Kansas regiment, engaged the Rebels at Paris and retreated with slight loss to Shelbina, where he was put under arrest by General Hurlbut.

BATTLE OF BLUE MILLS

On the 15th of September, Lieutenant-Colonel Scott, now in command of the regiment, with a squad of artillery, was ordered to march to Liberty and join Colonel Smith of the