Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/443

 sick at St. Louis, Colonel Clark proceeded by rail with the prisoners to Chicago. When his command returned to Benton Barracks, it was utterly prostrated. Colonel Clark said “We were the most sickly, depressed and melancholy set of soldiers I ever saw. During the following month the mortality in the regiment was frightful.” Many were discharged for disability and the regiment was but a wreck of its original strength. During the stay at St. Louis Captain Gardner, Lieutenants Dilley and Rockwell, with seventy men, escorted several hundred prisoners to City Point, Virginia. At this time the number of men fit for duty in the regiment did not exceed three hundred out of nine hundred fifty three—its original strength. Late in April the Thirty-fourth was moved to Pilot Knob, where Colonel Clark took command of the post and Lieutenant-Colonel Dungan commanded the regiment. Here in a healthful and pleasant camp, the sick began to recover and it was not long before the number fit for duty reached four hundred. On the 3d of June the regiment was ordered to embark to join General Grant’s army then besieging Vicksburg. It was placed on the extreme left of the line of investment and remained on duty until the surrender of the Confederate army. Its loss during the siege was four killed and six wounded. In July the Thirty-fourth accompanied General Herron’s Division on an expedition to Yazoo City—fifty miles from the mouth of the river. On the morning of the 16th General Herron began a march across the country in the direction of Canton to protect the rear and flank of General Sherman’s army then besieging Jackson. He crossed the Big Black River at Moore’s Ferry and found that General Johnston had evacuated the city the night previous. Herron returned to Vicksburg on the 21st, having captured during his absence three hundred prisoners, six pieces of heavy artillery, 1,000 horses and mules, 2,000 bales of cotton and one steamer, while causing the destruction of five others. The heat was intense on the march and many