Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/291

 covered with railroad iron. Connected with the fort was a strong water battery, the casements of which were securely protected. After a short conflict the fort was captured with the cannon and a large quantity of small arms, ammunition and commissary stores. It was destroyed, and the fleet and army moved on up Red River to Alexandria, where Banks was concentrating his army. On the 8th of April the Confederate army assailed the advance columns of the Union men near Mansfield. After a brave fight against superior numbers Ransom’s Division gave way in confusion, reënforcements coming up a division at a time only to be beaten in detail. The road was blockaded by miles of wagon trains, obstructing the reënforcing columns, and soon the advance of the Union army became a routed, fleeing mob—infantry, cavalry, artillery and wagon trains in utter confusion. Ten guns, two hundred and sixty-nine wagons and more than 1,000 prisoners fell into the hands of the enemy. General Emory in the rear, near Pleasant Grove, taking a strong position, finally checked the advance of the Confederates. Opening his ranks to let the retreating army pass through, the line closed again on the double-quick, and poured into the faces of the advancing enemy a terrific fire that mowed down hundreds and checked the pursuit. Again and again the Confederates charged on Emory’s lines only to be hurled back in confusion, when night at last put an end to the bloody conflict. General Smith’s veterans were in reserve, and on the next day at Pleasant Hill made a vigorous stand. Colonel Shaw’s Brigade, composed of the Fourteenth, Twenty-seventh and Thirty-second Iowa and the Twenty-fourth Missouri was formed across the main road by which the enemy must advance to the attack. At four o’clock the Confederates again assailed the Union army and a desperate battle ensued. Not troops ever made a more heroic fight than Shaw’s “Iron Brigade.”

Greeley’s American Conflict says: