Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/249



N July, 1861, immediately after the disastrous defeat of the Union army at Bull Run, Hon. William Vandever, the Republican member of Congress from the second district of Iowa, tendered to Secretary Cameron of the War Department a regiment to be raised in his district. His offer was promptly accepted and in a few weeks recruits were gathering at Dubuque. The regiment was composed of companies enlisted largely from the counties of Jackson, Jones, Buchanan, Clayton, Fayette, Black Hawk, Winneshiek, Howard, Bremer, Linn, and numbered nine hundred and seventy-seven men. The field and staff officers were William Vandever, colonel; F. J. Herron, lieutenant-colonel; W. H. Coyle, major; William Scott, adjutant; F. S. Winslow, quartermaster; Benj. McClure, surgeon; A. B. Kendig, chaplain. A few days after being mustered into service on the 24th of September, 1861, the regiment was sent to Benton Barracks, near St. Louis. For three months it was engaged in guarding the railroad from Rolla to Franklin and in drilling in camp of instruction. On the 22d of January, 1862, joining the Army of the Southwest, under General Samuel R. Curtis, Colonel Vandever was placed in command of the Second Brigade, consisting of the Ninth Iowa, Twenty-fifth Missouri, Third Illinois Cavalry, and the Third Iowa Battery; this brigade was in General Carr’s Division. The army marched to Springfield, in pursuit of General Price. He retreated to Arkansas, followed by General Curtis. In a skirmish at Sugar Creek the Ninth was under fire. Here was encountered a large force of the enemy supported by a battery and charging under a sharp fire, it was driven