Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/364

 employment of colored men in the army had met with strong opposition from the time it was first proposed. But as the war continued public sentiment changed and many negro regiments were raised. The Battle of Milliken’s Bend demonstrated the fact that the colored men would not only fight bravely but in every respect made good soldiers. In this battle the Iowa regiment fought with the colored brigade, and side by side they won from General Grant warm commendation for their gallantry. After the battle the Twenty-third returned to its brigade in the army investing Vicksburg. Though weak in numbers it did good service in the various trying ordeals of the siege. After Pemberton’s surrender the regiment was sent to reinforce Sherman’s army in operations about Jackson, and at the close of that campaign returned to Vicksburg. About the middle of August General Ord’s Corps was transferred to the Department of the Gulf, where for nearly a year the operations of the Twenty-third Iowa were intimately associated with the Twenty-second, as detailed in the history of that regiment. It was employed in Texas and the islands along the coast, then, returning to New Orleans in the spring of 1864, was sent to reënforce the defeated army of General Banks retreating down the Red River valley. It ascended the Mississippi with a command under General Fitz-Henry Warren and proceeded to Fort De Russey, and from there went into camp at the mouth of the Red River, joining General Banks’ army about the middle of May. Later in the season the regiment was placed in a brigade with the Twentieth Iowa, an Illinois and a Wisconsin regiment, meeting the enemy. Early in 1865 the command returned to New Orleans to join the expedition then being fitted out for the last campaign of the war, that against Mobile. Colonel Glasgow was now in command of the brigade and Lieutenant-Colonel C. J. Clark commanded the regiment. In the hard marches, the siege and assaults of that