Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/244

 as veterans and visited their homes on furlough. The regiment was stationed at Memphis for a long time and took part in the defense of that city against the attack by General Forrest, losing over forty men in that battle. In this conflict Lieutenant A. S. Irwin was killed; Captain C. P. Earl, Lieutenants J. A. Boyer and J. L. Tinkham, wounded, and Lieutenant John Harver captured. Captain William Bell, of Company C, was promoted to lieutenant-colonel after the death of Ferguson, and Captain William Stubbs, of Company G, was promoted to major in place of Palmer, resigned. Early in March, 1865, the regiment was sent to New Orleans and soon after joined in the campaign against Mobile.

CAPTURE OF MOBILE

General Gordon Granger, with the Thirteenth Corps, and General A. J. Smith, with the Sixteenth Army Corps, marched up to the eastern shore of Mobile Bay, while General Steele, with an independent column, marched from Pensacola. There were several Iowa regiments in the army that was concentrating around the city. The defenses of Mobile were very strong; the Spanish Fort on the left and Fort Blakely on the right commanded the approaches by land. They must be taken before the city could be occupied. Between these forts, which were several miles apart, were numerous earthworks and redoubts, the approaches to which were obstructed by ditches, trees, wires and torpedoes. At Spanish Fort there were several lines of inferior rifle-pits for skirmishers outside of the principal works. A formidable ditch added to the strength of the position and a most elaborately constructed abattis presented its sharp points to the assailants. Trees were felled and laced together for an area of many acres around and the ground everywhere was thickly strewn with torpedoes. Artillery of various caliber bristled along the walls and 3,000 soldiers held the interior of the fort, which was crescent-shaped, its right and left defenses swinging