Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/418

 the army which captured Jackson and from there joined Grant’s army before Vicksburg, took part in the bloody assault of May 22d and bore its part in the labors and perils of the siege which followed, until the surrender. It did its duty nobly all through the severe campaign and met with heavy losses. Lieutenant-Colonel Jenkins was among the wounded. Joining the column sent against Jackson the second time, on the 27th of July, it went into camp on the Big Black River. Toward the last of September the regiment moved with Osterhaus’ Division to enter the campaign against Chattanooga. It was engaged in the battles of Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge and Ringgold, after which the Union army went into winter quarters—the Thirty-first regiment at Woodville, Alabama. On the 1st of May it marched to northern Georgia and joined the grand army collected by General Sherman for his famous conquest of the southeastern States. This army now consisted of nearly 70,000 men under General Thomas known as the Army of the Cumberland; the Army of the Tennessee under General McPherson 24,000 strong; the Army of the Ohio numbering 13,000 under command of General Schofield; making a total of more than 100,000 men with two hundred fifty-four pieces of artillery. Against this magnificent array of western soldiers, led by some of the most brilliant officers in the service, the Southern Confederacy was only able to gather an army of about 50,000 men which consisted of the corps of Hood, Hardee and Polk and 4,000 cavalry under Wheeler, all under the command of General Joseph E. Johnston, one of the ablest officers in the service. The disparity in numbers was too great for hope of being able to successfully resist the onward march of Sherman through the South.

THE BATTLE OF RESACA

Johnston took a position at Dallas behind a lofty spur of the Alleghanies called Rocky Faced Ridge, through which runs a railway following a gap made by Mill Creek,