Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/367

 campaign, the Twenty-third bore an honorable share. In storming the Spanish Fort it again met in combat the Twenty-third Alabama, which had been encountered at Port Gibson, where it was first under fire. Here one man was killed and twenty-five wounded. After two months’ stay in the vicinity of Mobile, the regiment was moved to Columbus, in Texas, where it went into camp under command of Captain J. J. Van Houten. On the 26th of July the regiment was mustered out of the service at Harrisburg, Texas, with four hundred seventeen officers and men. They reached Davenport on the 8th of August, where the regiment was disbanded. After bidding their comrades “good-by” the war-worn soldiers separated to their homes.

THE TWENTY-FOURTH IOWA INFANTRY

Soon after the President’s call for 300,000 volunteers of July 2, 1862, Governor Kirkwood authorized Eber C. Byam, of Linn County, to raise a regiment. Three companies were accepted from Linn County, two from Cedar, two from Jackson, one from Johnson, one from Tama and one from Jones, making in all nine hundred fifty men. E. C. Byam was appointed colonel; J. Q. Wilds, lieutenant-colonel; Ed. Wright, major; and C. L. Byam, adjutant. The regiment went into camp at Muscatine in August, 1862, and on the 18th of September was mustered into service of the United States. On the 20th of October it was embarked on a steamer, reaching Helena, Arkansas, on the 28th, where camp was made on the bank of the Mississippi River. This proved to be an unhealthy locality and soon more than one hundred men were prostrated by sickness. The regiment remained here most of the winter, from time to time engaged in hard marches and fruitless expeditions. On January 11th the regiment embarked on the White River expedition, under General Gorman, and endured almost unparalleled hardships and sufferings,