Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/240

, was now sent forward against the enemy’s left flank. Charging, with loud shouts and great vigor, on the flank, the regiment surprised and threw the enemy into confusion. Two batteries now opened upon them, but they still advanced and after a sharp engagement, drove the enemy from position and opened the way for our entire army to advance. In this brilliant engagement the Union loss was seventy-four men, of which sixty were in the Iowa regiment. While the regiment was at Rome the Presidential election took place. The Iowa Legislature had provided by law a method by which our soldiers could vote in the field.

General McClellan, having failed as a military commander, was now the candidate of the “peace” wing of the Democratic party for President, against Lincoln, who was giving every energy of his grand character to the subjugation of the armed enemies of the Nation. Out of the three hundred and twenty-two votes cast by the gallant Seventh Iowa, Lincoln received three hundred and twenty and McClellan two. From Rome, our regiment marched to Atlanta and from there to Savannah, meeting with but slight loss. Colonel E. W. Rice had been promoted to Brigadier-General on the 20th of June, 1864, having entered the service in 1861 as a sergeant of Company C, in the Seventh. Lieutenant-Colonel J. C. Parrott was now in command of the regiment; Samuel Mahon, major, and W. W. Sapp, adjutant. The army moved from Savannah on the 28th of January, 1865, on its march through South Carolina, amid the storms of mid-winter, wading swamps, swollen creeks and rivers. For four hundred and eighty miles to Goldsboro, North Carolina, the Seventh bravely endured the hardships without complaint, losing but three men. The campaign ended here, where camp was made on the 24th of March. During this march, Sherman’s army had built thirty-nine miles of corduroy road through the otherwise impassable swamps. The regiment marched to Washington by way of Richmond and